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Spatial evaluation and modelling of fire stations layout to access forest fires by roads (case study: Krasnoyarsk region, Russia)
Regional forest fire protection services on the ground usually have a fire station infrastructure with firefighting vehicles capable of moving by public and forest roads. The location of fire stations is a subject of evaluation on the regional scale and a matter of constant research interest. Infrastructure and transport accessibility, as well as the spatial location of fire stations worldwide and in Russia, were discussed. Location-Allocation ArcGIS tool and the access routes database for Krasnoyarsk region (archived data of 2002-2022 forest fires detected by MODIS containing 60637 records) were the base of methodology to evaluate fire station layout. The settlement dataset from Open Street Map (OSM) was used to analyze new locations as candidates for a fire station. Standard Deviational Ellipse ArcGIS tool was applied to define an optimal area for the current fire station from which routes to the nearest fires are built. OSM settlements inside of 1-sd area of the ellipse were used to generate the candidate list of settlements to find new locations instead of the current fire station. Results have been evaluated for 3 groups of access routes: 3 hours and less, more than 3 hours, and access routes of any duration according to the Russian forestry rules. The proposed fire station layout has improved forest fire accessibility with OSM candidates for 39 stations; 20 of 59 remain spatially unchanged. Total regional forest fire accessibility changed from the current to the proposed layout in absolute values from 47331 to 48905 fires. Analysis of 39 relocated stations showed that the new fire station layout is more optimal than the current one because it provides access to an additional 20 % of forest fires with a decrease in average weighted time to reach them by 30 %. The described methodology could make an emergency response during a fire-hazardous period more effective.