Spatial Modeling of Transport and Resources Accessibility for Protecting Forest Ecosystems Against Forest Fires

Abstract

Forest fires are inevitable events that cause negative impacts on forests and threaten the sustainability of forest resources. For effective combating against forest fires, the ground teams should arrive at the fire scene in critical response time in which the possibility of extinguishing the fire is very high. Road networks, including public and forest roads, are the main structures that ensure ground access to the forest resources for management and protection purposes. A network analysis method is effectively used to solve complex transportation problems. Most recent advances in computer technology and geographical information system (GIS) tools with network analysis-based modules have made it possible to develop GIS-based decision support system (DSS) for solving such transportation problems. Network analysis features of proprietary and open source software provide managers with effective methods to define the fastest fire-access route and accessible forested areas by ground teams considering the critical response time. The new route and closest facility methods under Network Analyst tool of ArcGIS software assist fire managers to search for the optimum route that minimizes the travel time of the ground team to the fire. A new service area, which is a well-known method under Network Analyst, is used to evaluate accessibility of the forest areas by the ground teams. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the previous studies, conducted on the spatial modeling of transport and accessibility for the forest resources based on the specific GIS modules. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.