Using GIS-based Network Analysis to Evaluate the Accessible Forest Areas Considering Forest Fires: The Case of Sarajevo

Abstract

The forest fire is one of the greatest environmental disasters in forest ecosystems. In order to effectively fight against forest fires, the ground team needs to access fire areas immediately and start firefighting within critical response time. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the forest areas where the ground team can reach in critical response time. In this study, the GIS-based network analysis method was used to evaluate the capabilities of the ground team to arrive at forest areas promptly, considering the forested areas in Canton Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the solution process, the effectiveness of establishing new fire stations (20) was evaluated by comparing the results obtained in the case where only the former stations (12) were taken into account. The optimal route and associated response times of firefighting teams to potential fire areas were generated considering the previously occurred forest fires (58 fires) in the region. The results indicated that about 18% of the forested areas were accessible considering the former fire station while accessible forest areas increased up to 45% considering the new stations. When analyzing the previously occurred forest fires, it was found that 33 fires were reached in the critical response time considering former fire stations. On the other hand, the accessible forest fires increased up to 56 fires for the case of new fire stations in the region.