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Using forest fire experts’ opinions and GIS/remote sensing techniques in locating forest fire lookout towers

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Abstract

Timely detection of fire and early warning to fire stations are crucial functions in fire-suppression and controlling efforts. The most effective way for early detection of forest fires is monitoring from fire lookout towers. This study aimed to develop a geographical information system (GIS) method to determine proper points for installing fire lookout towers based on using forest fire experts’ opinions to determine effective criteria and sub-criteria on locating fire lookout towers and to weigh them via analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique. The study area, including four sub-catchments with an area of 32,446 ha, is located in Sardasht, NW Iran, in which no tower has been constructed so far. The results revealed that the most effective criteria in order of priorities are elevation, distance from roads, distance from previous burned areas, slope, and distance from residential areas. This method proposed 4 points for erecting fire lookout towers together covering about 60% of the total study area, while this coverage was more than 75% in sub-catchment number four. Based on the results, the use of forest fire experts’ opinions can lead to good results in determining and weighing (i.e., via AHP) the effective criteria on fire lookout towers locating and a GIS based method to determine optimal points for establishing fire lookout towers.

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Data availability

Data used in this study are available to submit upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Expert Choice is a decision-making software and created by Thomas Saaty and Ernest Forman in 1983; the software is supplied by Expert Choice Inc.

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Acknowledgements

This paper has been extracted from a master thesis financially supported by Urmia University, Iran. We gratefully acknowledge the very beneficial technical assistance and advice received from our colleagues in Forestry Department, Urmia University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forestry Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Tayebe Amiri, Omid Hosseinzadeh & Hadi Beygi Heidarlou

  2. Forestry Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Abbas Banj Shafiei

  3. Range and Watershed Management Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Mahdi Erfanian

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  1. Tayebe Amiri
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  2. Abbas Banj Shafiei
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  4. Omid Hosseinzadeh
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  5. Hadi Beygi Heidarlou
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ABSh and HBH. Performed the experiments: TA and HBH. Analyzed the data: ABSh, TA, ME, and OH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ME, HBH, and OH. Wrote the paper: ABSh, TA, and HBH.

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Correspondence to Abbas Banj Shafiei.

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Amiri, T., Banj Shafiei, A., Erfanian, M. et al. Using forest fire experts’ opinions and GIS/remote sensing techniques in locating forest fire lookout towers. Appl Geomat 15, 45–59 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-022-00476-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-022-00476-6

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