Visibility Analysis of Fire Watchtowers Using GIS; A Case Study in Dalaman State Forest Enterprise

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 66 - 71, 31.12.2017

Merih Göltaş , Tufan Demirel İnci Çağlayan

Abstract

The
determination of the forest fires as quickly as possible and accurately their
location is very important for fighting forest fires. Therefore, fire
watchtowers should be located on high peaks where watchtower staffs are able to
watch most of the forest areas. In this study, Dalaman State Forest Enterprise
was selected as first-degree fire-prone region, and visibility analysis has
performed to fire watchtowers network. With Visibility Analysis using
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the location of each watchtower was
evaluated separately and visible forest areas monitored by fire watchtowers
were identified. Visibility analysis was conducted for 9 fire watchtowers which
supervise the study area. We determine forest areas observed by each individual
watchtower and more than one watchtower, and also invisible forest areas. The
results showed that 47.2 % of forest area could be observed by fire
watchtowers. In order to increase visibility percentage to reasonable levels,
new fire watchtowers could be added or inactive fire watchtowers could be moved
to suitable locations.

Keywords

Fire watchtower, Visibility analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

References

• Akay, A.E., Sivrikaya, F., Yenilmez, N., Taylan, H., 2011. Evaluating Locations of Fire Watch Towers through Visibility Analysis in GIS Environment. In: 1st National Mediterranean and Environment Symposium, 22-24 October, Kahramanaraş, Turkey.
• Akbulak, C., and Özdemir, M., 2008. The Application of the visibility analysis for fire observation towers in the Gelibolu Peninsula (NW Turkey) Using GIS. Proceedings of the Conference on Water Observation and Information System for Decision Support: BALWOIS (Balkan Water Observation and Information System) 27-31 May, Ohrid, Macedonia.
• Akgul, M., Yurtseven, H., Gulci, S., Akay, A. E., 2017. Evaluation of UAV-and GNSS-Based DEMs for Earthwork Volume. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-017-2811-9. Artsybashev, E., 1984. Detection of forest fires. Forest fires and their control, Russian Translations Series 15:46-61.
• ASF 2015. ASF radiometrically terrain corrected ALOS PALSAR products, Product guide. https://media.asf.alaska.edu/uploads/RTC/rtc_product_guide_v1.2.pdf (Accessed 07.10.17)
• Bignone, F., Umakawa, H., 2008. Assessment of ALOS PRISM digital elevation model extraction over Japan. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 37: 1135-1138.
• Bilgili, E., and Küçük, Ö., 2001. The importance of fire fuel in determination of fire sensitivity degrees. 1st National Forestry Congress of Foresters' Association of Turkey. 19-20 March, Turkey.
• Davis, K.P., 1959. Forest fire: control and use. McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., New York
• Fern, J., Carmona-Gal, R., Carranza-Gonz, L., 2008. A vision-based monitoring system for very early automatic detection of forest fires. Transactions on Ecology and the Environment 119: 161-170.
• GDF. 1995. 285 Numbered Communiqué. https://www.ogm.gov.tr/ekutuphane/Tebligler/ (Accessed 07.10.17)
• GDF. 2015. Forestry statistics. https://www.ogm.gov.tr/ekutuphane/Sayfalar/Istatistikler (Accessed 07.10.17)
• Korale, P., Pade, A., Varghese, A., Joshi, A., 2009. Mapping of forest fire risk zones and identification of suitable sites for fire watch towers using remote sensing and GIS. ISRS Symposium on Advances in Geo-spatial technologies with special emphasis on sustainable rainfed Agriculture, 17-19 September, Nagpur, India.
• Küçük, Ö., Topaloğlu, O., Altunel, A.O., Çetin, M., 2017. Visibility analysis of fire lookout towers in the Boyabat State Forest Enterprise in Turkey. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 189(7): 329.
• Millan-Garcia, L., Sanchez-Perez, G., Nakano, M., Toscano-Medina, K., Perez-Meana, H., Rojas-Cardenas, L., 2012. An early fire detection algorithm using IP cameras. Sensors, 12(5): 5670-5686.
• Pompa-García, M., Solís-Moreno, R., Rodríguez-Téllez, E., Pinedo-Álvarez, A., Avila-Flores, D., Hernández-Díaz, C., Velasco-Bautista, E., 2010. Viewshed analysis for improving the effectiveness of watchtowers, in the north of Mexico. Open Forest Science Journal, 3: 17-22.
• Rego, F. C., and Catry, F. X., 2006. Modelling the effects of distance on the probability of fire detection from lookouts. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 15(2): 197-202.
• Ruiz, E., 2000. Detección La defensa contra incendios forestales. Fundamentos y experiencias, McGraw-Hill/Interamaricana de España.
• Şahin, Y.G., and İnce, T., 2009. Early forest fire detection using radio-acoustic sounding system. Sensors, 9(3): 1485-1498.
• Trisakti, B., and Julzarika, A., 2011. DEM Generation from Stereo Alos Prism and Its Quality Improvement. International Journal of Remote Sensing and Earth Sciences (IJReSES), 8: 41-48.
• URL-1 https://vertex.daac.asf.alaska.edu/
• Yuan, C., Zhang, Y., Liu, Z., 2015. A survey on technologies for automatic forest fire monitoring, detection, and fighting using unmanned aerial vehicles and remote sensing techniques. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 45(7): 783-792.