Although forest fires are indispensable for some ecosystems, they can have profound economic, environmental, and social implications, especially when they reach high intensities. There are two crucial factors in fighting forest fires: the availability of water resources and the service network. The objective of this study was to propose an alternative methodology for allocating water reservoirs to fight forest fires. The research was divided into three stages: zoning of fire risk, delimitation of viable areas for the implementation of water reservoirs, and determining strategic locations for reservoir allocation. The variables analyzed were land use and occupation, provision of watercourses, relief orientation, slope, proximity to roads, temperature, and precipitation. Fuzzy logic, Euclidean distance, and network analysis were used as the modeling techniques. Scenarios with all risk classes and only the high- and very high-risk classes were analyzed. A total of 66% of the area was represented by the low- and moderate-risk fire classes and 53.16% had a low potential for reservoir allocation, influenced by the low availability of water resources in the area. The proposed model efficiently allocated the water collection points in the different scenarios, and allowed the determination of the areas most susceptible to the occurrence of forest fires and the optimal locations for the installation of reservoirs, with the allocation of 21 water reservoirs to attend the areas of high- and very high-risk of occurrence of fires at a safe speed (40 km h-1) and 47 reservoirs to meet all risk classes at the same speed. The proposed methodology is feasible, applicable, and adjustable and can be implemented in other conservation units and areas of economic interest.
Keywords: Fire management; Forest planning; Fuzzy logic; GIS; Reservoir allocation; Wildfire risk.
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