Planning of fire protection activities by using GIS techniques in forested areas with fire risk

In Turkey, forest areas which are sensitive to forest fire in the first degree are located along the coastline of the Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean regions. As a result of forest fires, as one of the biggest environmental disasters on forest resources, approximately 10000 hectares of forest area per year is damaged according to the statistics of General Directorate of Forestry in Turkey. One of the important elements of the fight against forest fires is early detection and quick intervention. In order to achieve this goal, first of all, it is very important to determine the fire sensitive areas and then to locate fire lookout towers and the firefighting teams by consideration these areas. In this thesis, Yayla Forest Enterprise Chief (FEC), which is located at the borders of Dursunbey Forest Enterprise Directorate, has been selected as the study area. ArcGIS 10.2 software was used for all Geographical Information System (GIS) operations and processes in the study. In the study, firstly fire risk map of the area covering the boundaries of the Yayla FEC was established. For this purpose, AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) mathematical model was used. Within the framework of this method, tree species, crown density, age stage, slope and aspect criteria were used. In the next stage, the digital terrain model, fire tower information and land use types data layer were used to run the visibility analysis for whole study area and for forested area. "Observer Points" tool of ArcGIS 10.2 was used for this stage. For the network analysis, forest roads, village roads, highways, and fire lookout towers and firefighting teams' locations in the study area were digitized. With the digital data obtained, the network database was generated by using the "ArcCatalog" module. Various analyzes were made on this database using the "Network Analyst" module. The first step is the determination of the optimum routes which will provide the fastest access to the possible fire areas from the firefighting team. The second is the calculation of how far the firefighting team can reach within the determined time limits from the location they are located. Thus, a complete assessment of the study area was conducted in terms of the organization of forest fires fighting activities. According to the results, it was determined that 36.4% of the forest areas within the boundaries of Yayla FEC were very risky against fires, 38.6% and 25% were risky and low risk, respectively for forest fires. When the fire towers in the study area were evaluated, it was determined that 79% of the total area could be seen by the towers and 81% of the forest area was into the view of the towers. When the situation of the firefighting teams was examined, it was determined that only 3 of the 19 potential fire areas could not be reached at the critical response time. In addition, 83% of the forest areas that are in charge of the FEC were found to be reached with the firefighting team during critical response time. The results were found to be sufficient for the firefighting team and fire lookout towers in the study area to effectively fight forest fires and to use resources efficiently.