orman yangınları ile mücadele amaçlı helikopterler kiralamaktadır. Yangın helikopterlerinden biri yangın sezonu boyunca Antakya'da. Arsuz Yangın Harekat ...
EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY OF FIRE HELICOPTER LOCATED IN ARSUZ-ANTAKYA IN FIRE FIGHTING ACTIVITIES Abdullah E. AKAY1, Fatih SİVRİKAYA1, Dursun ŞAKAR1 1
KSU, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey Abstract
In Turkey, the General Directorate of Forestry (GDF) utilizes helicopters in various forestry activities such as fire fighting, forest protection, wildlife management, shipping, and other activities. The GDF rents helicopters for fire fighting activities. Along the fire seasons, one of these helicopters has been located in Arsuz Fire Fighting Headquarter (FFH) in the Mediterranean city of Antakya. This helicopter is utilized by Kahramanmaraş Forestry Regional Directorate (FRD) to be used in forest fire incidents in the region. In this study, the efficiency of this helicopter has been evaluated by considering reaching time to potential fire areas in the critical response time, which is approximately 20, 30, and 40 minutes for the forested areas sensitive to fires in the first, second, and third degrees. The study was applied in the area managed by Antakya Forest Enterprise Directorate of Kahramanmaraş FRD. To conduct proximity analysis, the capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools have been utilized based on a spatial database. Then, the areas that can be reached in the critical time were determined for the forested areas in the study area. The results indicated that GIS based decision support systems can be effectively used to evaluate the efficiency of fire helicopter in the region of Antakya. Keywords: Fire helicopter, Fire fighting, GIS, Proximity analysis
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ARSUZ-ANTAKYA’DA KONUŞLANAN YANGIN HELİKOPTERİNİN ORMAN YANGINLARI İLE MÜCADELEDE VERİMLİLİĞİNİN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ Özet Ülkemizde Orman Genel Müdürlüğü (OGM), yangınla mücadele, orman
koruma,
yaban
hayatı
yönetimi
ve
taşıma
gibi
çeşitli
ormancılık aktivitelerinde helikopterler istihdam etmektedir. OGM orman yangınları ile mücadele amaçlı helikopterler kiralamaktadır. Yangın helikopterlerinden biri yangın sezonu boyunca Antakya’da Arsuz Yangın Harekat Merkezinde
(YHM) konuşlanmaktadır. Bu
helikopter bölgedeki orman yangını olaylarında yararlanılmak üzere Kahramanmaraş
Orman
kullanılmaktadır.
Bu
Bölge
Müdürlüğü
çalışmada,
helikopterin
(OBM)
tarafından
verimliliği
kritik
müdahale süresi (Yangın hassasiyeti I., II. ve III. derece olan orman alanlarında kritik müdahale süresi sırası ile: 20, 30 ve 40 dakika) dikkate alınarak değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışma Kahramanmaraş OBM’ne bağlı Antakya Orman İşletme Müdürlüğü tarafından işletilen alanda uygulamıştır. Yakınlık veritabanını
temel
analizinin gerçekleştirilmesi
alan
Coğrafi
Bilgi
Sistemleri
için
konumsal
(CBS)
araçları
kullanılmıştır. Daha sonra, çalışma alanındaki ormanlar için kritik müdahale süresi içinde ulaşılabilen alanlar belirlemiştir. Sonuçlar, CBS tabanlı karar destekleme sistemlerinin yangın helikopterinin Antakya bölgesindeki
verimliliğinin
incelenmesinde
etkin
olarak
kullanılabileceğini göstermiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Yangın helikopteri, Yangınla mücadele, CBS, Yakınlık analizi 1. Introduction Along the shore band from eastern Mediterranean region to Marmara region in Turkey, there are approximately 5.5 million ha of forest areas which are highly sensitive to forest fires (CFE, 2008).
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The fire sensitivity of a forest area can be determined based on number of fires, the ratio of burned area and total area, and fire coefficient (Mol, 1994). For accurate determination of fire sensitivity, there must be detail archive information about the forest fires taken place in the area (Küçük and Ünal, 2005). The GIS based decision supporting systems have been widely used in many forestry applications. The GIS technology has effective tools to collect, store, manipulate, analyze spatial data and to present descriptive information about them on the maps (Gumusay and Sahin, 2009). In Turkey, the fire sensitivity map has been generated by GDF based on Forest Enterprise Directories (FEDs). In order to fight effectively against forest fires, the arrival time of the fire fighting crew to the fire areas should not exceed the critical response time in which the probability of controlling the forest fires is higher. The critical response time varies by the fire sensitivity degree of the burned area (GDF, 2008) (Table 1). Table 1. Critical response times based on fire sensitivity degrees Fire Sensitivity Degrees
Response times (min)
I
II
III
IV
V
20
30
40
50
50
The fire fighting crew is divided into 5 groups; the initial responding team, reserved fighting team, mobile team, fire truck team, and aerial support (helicopter and aircraft) team (Akay et al., 2008a). Especially in the forest areas highly sensitive to forest fires, initial responding team can be transported to the fire areas by a helicopter so that they can quickly initiate fire fighting activities. This
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is one of the crucial factors of controlling forest fires and reducing the losses. Besides, the forest fires taken place in remote areas with no roads or limited transportation can be accessed and controlled in short amount of time. For effective fire fighting, the fire fighters transported by helicopter should have enough agility to jump down from the helicopter when it is necessary and should be physically sound and dynamic (GDF, 1995). General
Directorate
of
Forestry
(GDF)
in
Turkey
rents
helicopters to use in fire fighting activities during the fire season (Akay et al., 2008b). In this study, GIS technology was used to evaluate
the
efficiency
of
the
fire
helicopter,
utilized
by
Kahramanmaraş FRD and placed in Arsuz FFH in Antakya, considering critical response time and fire sensitivity degrees in the area. 2. Material and Methods 2.1. Material 2.1.1. Study Area Antakya FED of Kahramanmaraş FRD was selected as the study area (Figure 1). Antakya FED has been classified as the area sensitive to forest fires at 1st degree. The general information about the Forest Enterprise Chiefs (FEC) located in the study area are listed in Table 2. The study area covers the area of approximately 503048 ha and lays between 35,62º - 38,70º North latitudes and 35,72º-38,28º East longitudes.
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Figure 1. Antakya FED and Enterprise Chiefs Table 2. The FECs located in study area FECs Antakya Merkez İskenderun Kırıkhan Belen Arsuz Hassa Samandağ Yayladağ
Area (ha) 106339 55120 145253 18151 39819 49443 44170 44753
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2.1.2. Fire Fighting Headquarter Arsuz FFH is in the boundaries of Arsuz FEC and located 25 km southeast of the city of İskenderun-Antakya. In the aerial support team working together with Uluçınar (Sahil) Initial Responding Team, there are 20 fire fighters, 2 pilots, 2 co-pilots, 2 engineers, and 2 technicians. Besides, there are 2 fire trucks and Russian made “Mil Mi-8MTV-1” model fire helicopter in the FFH (Figure 2). Mi-8MTV-1 has carrying capacity of 20 people and 2.5 ton water by a special bucket attached under the helicopter. This helicopter, with maximum take off weight capacity of 13000 kg, can reach up to flight speed of 220-230 km/hour, with 2200 Hp engine (Akay et al., 2008c).
Figure 2. “Mi-8MTV-1” model fire helicopter located in Arsuz FFH. 2.2. Method 2.2.1. GIS Database The GIS based decision support system developed by using ArcGIS 9.2 program in this study requires a GIS database consisting of various digital data layers. For that purpose, forest management maps, fire sensitivity map in national scale, the coordinates of the Arsuz FFH, and information about the past forest fires.
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2.2.2. Land Use Classes To produce land use classification map, stand type maps obtained from the management plans of FECs located in the study area was utilized (Figure 3). The land use classification maps in vector data format was first converted into raster format in ArcGIS 9.2 and then a new data layer showing only the forest areas was generated by reclassifying it again using “Reclassify” method.
Figure 3. The stand type map for a part of study area 2.2.3. Fire Sensitivity The fire sensitivity map of the study area was produced by using the fire sensitivity maps generated by GDF based on FED (Figure 4). To perform that Clip as an Extract feature under Analysis Tools was used in ArcGIS 9.2.
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Figure 4. The map of fire sensitivity degrees 2.2.4. Helicopter Arrival Time The efficiency of the fire helicopter located in Arsuz FFH was evaluated by considering the critical response time. For this purpose, Buffer feature under Proximity in ArcMap module of ArcGIS 9.2 was utilized. In the study, by considering the helicopter arrival time of 20, 30, and 40 minutes (flight time + preparation time), circular areas that can be reached by the helicopter in these time periods. The average flight speed and preparation time were determined as 225 km/hour and 10 minutes, respectively, based on the interview with the pilots and the technicians in Arsuz FFH. Then, the radius of each circle (37,5 km, 75 km, and 112,5 km) was computed by using flight times (10, 20, and 30 minutes) and average flight speed. Finally, the areas where the initial responding teams can be transported by helicopter in critical response time were determined considering fire sensitivity degrees.
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In order to evaluate the efficiency of aerial support team, potential fire areas have been determined. For this purpose, the information about past fires with the burned area of 45 hectare or more were obtained from the sources of Antakya FEC (Table 3). Then, arrival times to the fire areas were computed by using Point Distance feature of Proximity under ArcMap module of ArcGIS 9.2. Table 3. The information about potential fires in the study area No
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
FEC Belen Yayladağ Yayladağ Yayladağ Samandağ Samandağ Uluçınar
Burned Area (ha) 45 121 46 317 200 574 263
Year
Cause
2002 2007 2007 2007 2007 2008 2001
Negligence-Carelessness Negligence-Carelessness Negligence-Carelessness Negligence-Carelessness Negligence-Carelessness Negligence-Carelessness Negligence
The UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) coordinates of the approximate location of fires were recorded as Microsoft Excel file. Then, a data layer showing the location of the selected forest fires was generated by using Add XY Data feature in ArcGIS 9.2, based on the Excel file. Besides, UTM coordinate of Arsuz FFH, visited during this study, was determined by a hand-held GPS and stored as a GIS data layer. 3. Results 3.1. Land Use Classes The land use classification map produced for the study area indicated that there are 15 different land use classes including open area, high forest, deciduous forest, forest soil (FS), erosion, stony area, sand, marsh, water bodies, settlement, forest warehouse, mine, agriculture, FS-stony area, and FS-agriculture (Figure 5).
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Figure 5. Land use classification map of the study area The results indicated that the most common land use class was agriculture (45.01%), followed by high foret (31.15%) and FSagriclture (10.24%) (Table 4). When considering the areas of high forest and deciduous forest under forest class, the total forest area was found to be 170861 ha in study area. This forest area was approximately 35% of the total area.
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Table 4. Areal distribution of land use classes Land Use Class
Area (%)
Open Area High Forest Deciduous Forest Forest Soil (FS) erosion Stony Area Sand Marsh Water Bodies Settlement Forest Warehouse Mine Agriculture FS-Stony Area FS-Agriculture
0.003 31.15 4.27 3.04 0.02 0.19 0.07 1.35 0.095 4.33 0.002 0.02 45.01 0.21 10.24
3.2. Helicopter Arrival Time Firstly, the efficiency of the fire helicopter located in Arsuz FFH was evaluated regarding with the critical response time. The circular areas that can be reached by the helicopter in arrival times of 0-20, 20-30, and 30-40 minutes were determined. Then, the forest areas that can be reached in these specified arrival times were found by overlapping the layer of circular areas and layer of forest area. The results indicated that helicopter can transport the initial responding team to the almost all of the study area (99.68%) in 0-20 minutes and to rest of the study area in 20-30 minutes (Table 5, Figure 6). About %99.86 of the forest area, which is sensitive to forest fires at 1st degree, can be reached in the critical response time of 20 minutes. However, 00.14% of the forest area can be reached in 20-30 minutes. Since helicopter reaches beyond the study area after 30 minutes, area reached in 30-40 minutes will not be considered.
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Table 5. Reachable areas in critical response times Arrival time
Tota Area
Forest
(min)
(ha)
Area (ha)
0-20 20-30 30-40
501417 1631 -
170621.6 68285 -
Figure 6. The reachable areas by helicopter in critical response time The potential fire areas selected to test the aerial support team located in Arsuz FFH were shown in Figure 7. The study area is in the area sensitive to fire at 1st degree, so, critical arrival time to the fire areas was determine as 20 minutes. The results indicated that all of the fire areas were reached in less than 20 minutes.
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Figure 7. Potential fire areas and Arsuz FFH 4. Conclusions and Proposals By using GIS technology, the efficiency of the helicopter aerial support team located in Antakya FEC of Kahramanmaraş FRD was evaluated, considering critical response time and fire sensitivity degrees in the area. Besides, efficiency of aerial support team was tested by determining the arrival time to areas of past fires in the study area. The forest areas in all of the study area were specified as fire sensitive at the 1st degree. According to land use classification
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analysis, 35% of the study area was covered by forests. Having forest areas sensitive to fire at the 1st degree indicates the importance of protection, prevention, and stopping actions before fire, during fire, and after fire in the region. When analyzing efficiency of aerial support team by considering forest areas in the study area, it was found that almost all of the Antakya FEC can be reached in critical response time. It was also found that fire helicopters located in Arsuz FFH can arrive all of the potential fire areas in the study area. These results indicated that the fire helicopter located in Kahramanmaraş FRD is very influential in effective fire fighting. The forest as one of the primary renewable resources should be managed by modern methods ensuring sustainable and optimum productivity to meet the demands of today’s and future’s generations. The results from this study indicated that fighting activities against forest fires can be more effective in Turkey if a digital database of the forests
are
generated
and
GIS
based
modern
methods
are
implemented. References Akay, A.E., Serin, H. and Yenilmez. N., 2008a. Health and Work Safety Problems of Pilots and other Crew Members Working in Helicopters Used in Forest Fire Activities. 14th National Congress of Ergonomics. October 30th- November 1st, Trabzon. 9 p. Akay, A.E., Acar, H.H. and Sessions, J., 2008b. An Analysis of Utilizing Helicopter Logging in Turkish Forestry. Journal of Applied Sciences. 8, 21, 3910-3916. Akay, A.E., Serin, H. and Yenilmez. N., 2008c. Investigating the Social Status and Working Conditions of Aerial Support Team Working in Fire Helicopters and Initial Action Teams. 2nd
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Congress of Socio-Economical Problems in Forestry. February 19th-21st, SDÜ, Isparta. 9 p. Gumusay, M.U. and Sahin, K., 2009. Visualization of forest fires interactively on the internet. Scientific Research and Essay, 4, 11, 1163-1174. Küçük, Ö. and Bilgili, E., 2006. The Conveyance of Fire Behavior Characteristics into Practice by Using Geographical Information Sysyems (GIS): A Case Study in Kastamonu. Journal of Forestry Faculty, Kastamonu University. 6, 2, 262-273. Mol, T., 1994. The Fire Sensitivity Rank of Forest Enterprises in Turkey. Istanbul University, Faculty of Forestry Journal, Series A, 44, 2, 17-33. GDF, 1995. Application Basics in Preventing and Extinguishing Forest Fires. General Directorate of Forestry. Bulletin No: 285, Ankara. 133 p. GDF, 2008. Fire Action Plan. General Directorate of Forestry. Kahramanmaraş Forest Regional Directorate, Kahramanmaraş. 106 p. CFE, 2008. The Chamber of Forest Engineers’ Commission Report on Forest Fire in Serik and Taşağıl Forest Enterprise Directorates of Antalya Forest Regional Directorate on July 31st-August 4th 2008. The Chamber of Forest Engineers. Ankara. 9 p.
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