Spatial analysis of fire lookout towers: The case of Isparta Forest Regional Directorate

The purpose of this study is to conduct a visibility analysis of forest fire lookout towers in Isparta Forestry Regional Directorate. The number of fire observation towers is 28. The visibility analysis of the neighboring 9 fire observation towers along the boundary of the study area was also carried out. ArcGIS, geographic information system software, was used in the study. The coordinates of the towers were determined and recorded in the UTM coordinate system. Geographical database was produced and tower points, stand type, road network and digital surface layers are added to the study. Digital elevation model was produced from SRTM data with 30x30 m terrestrial resolution. Elevation, slope and maintenance data were also derived from this data. In the study, visibility analysis was performed and areas that can be seen and not seen from the forest fire lookout towers were determined. According to this, 58% of the forest areas were found to be within the visible areas. It was determined that even though 22% of the remaining forest areas were within the visible limits, the topography was uneven and could not be seen due to the detection limits in the towers. In addition, 18% of the forest areas were found to be outside the detection limits of the towers. When we evaluate the fire lookout towers inside and outside the study area, it can be seen that 41% of the forest areas can only be seen from one tower and 19% of them can be seen by multiple towers at the same time. According to the results of visibility analysis, it was calculated that 30% of forest areas which cannot be seen from towers carry high fire risk. Accordingly, it was proposed to establish mobile fire first responders teams in meteorological alarms in high fire risk areas outside the visibility of the towers.