Choice of Airport in Extinguishing Wildfires : Model and Cases

This paper develops a model to support the optimal choice of an airport as a base for the flying vehicles that are operated to extinguish wildfires and forest fires. Based on experiences from the two largest wildfires in Swedish history, this study models the optimisation as a balanced transportation problem. In both cases, the model selected the airport that is closest to the fire area. If the capacity of the chosen airport was insufficient to host all of the flying vehicles, then the model added a second airport which is also nearby the wildfire area. The cases demonstrate that the total cost of the operation is lower when the extinguishing work is concentrated in an area that has a short distance between the airport and the fire, the fuel depots and the pilots’ accommodation. Improved access to relevant data in the context of crisis management by air could allow for the inclusion of additional parameters and correct data in the optimisation model, which could in turn provide more comprehensive decision-making support.Regionala flygplatse