ASSESSMENT OF FIREFIGHTING TEAMS BY USING GIS-BASED NETWORK ANALYSIS METHOD

Abstract

: The forest areas located along the coastline of the Mediterranean region in Turkey are sensitive to forest fires in the first degree. According to the fire statistics, about 21000 hectares of forest areas are damaged by forest fires annually. In order to fight forest fires effectively, the firefighting teams should reach the fire location and start fire extinguishing activities within the critical response time. GIS-based network analysis method can be used to evaluate the performance of the firefighting teams in a specified area. In this study, the locations of three firefighting teams within and around Yayla Forest Enterprise Chief (FEC) in the city of Balıkesir in Turkey was evaluated using "Network Analyst" module of ArcGIS software. In the first step, the optimum routes which provided the fastest access from the locations of firefighting teams to the possible fire areas were determined by using “New Closest Facility” method under "Network Analyst" module. Then, “New Service Area” method under the same module was used to calculate how far the firefighting teams can reach in the study area within a specific critical response time. It was found that 16 out of 19 potential fire areas could be reached by the teams within the critical response time. In addition, 83% of the forest areas in Yayla FEC was found to be reachable by the firefighting teams within the critical response time. The results suggested that the locations of the firefighting teams were found to be suitable for effective firefighting activities in the study area.