Mathematical programming and geotechnologies applied to allocation of forest fire detection towers

Forest fires are a recurring problem in areas of natural forests and reforestation, causing the loss of large areas of vegetation, resulting in economic and environmental damage. The reduction of fire occurrences must be based on prevention, detection, and combat, with rapid detection being a decisive factor in firefighting. The objective of this study is to present an integrated approach using operational research and geographic information system (GIS) technology to optimize the spatial coverage of conventional observation towers in areas at risk of forest fires. The study area is the Vale Nature Reserve (VNR), located in the north part of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The locations of forest fire risk (FFR) that were used as input in the mathematical programming model were defined, and then visibility analyses were performed by varying the height of the fire towers under eight scenarios. The mathematical model efficiently positioned the fire towers, allowing for optimized planning based on resource limitations and efficiency sensitivity analyses by increasing the number of towers in the scenarios. The proposed methodology provides a simple and robust analysis tool for the decision maker by allowing numerous combinations to be evaluated in a short time.