THE NATIONAL CAPABILITIES AND REQUIREMENTS OF TURKEY FOR BETTER WILDFIRES FIGHTING AND PREVENTION

Natural disasters such as wildfires are continuous hazards that threaten forests all around the world. Wildfires cause massive environmental and economic devastation and they are considered a major risk in several parts of the world. Between 1990 and 2020 the world has lost 178 million hectares of its forest, and because of the current climate change there are expectations for wildfires to increase in frequency, extent, and severity. Wildfires have become an increasingly serious concern on a global scale, causing environmental and economic damage. The complexity of the wildfires can make a negative impact on the decision-making process, while the decision-makers are under the pressure of conditions that are limited in time, dynamic, uncertain, and contradictory. A decision support system (DSS) is an interactive computer-based information system developed to assist decision-makers. It integrates the theory of decision-making with interactive computer systems. GIS-based DSSs have been used to increase the efficiency of fire control processes such as planning, managing, and decision-making. Some countries have their own wildfire systems. In Turkey, the forests represent about 29% of the total area, the average burned area is more than 10 thousand hectares per year while the average of wildfire incidents is about 2200 incidents annually. Several tools and systems have been developed recently, they have varied between early warning systems and decision support systems or even only fire monitoring and detection tools and systems. However, most of these tools and systems were developed to do one specific task. There is an urgent need to develop an integrated GIS-based DSS system to meet the national requirements of wildfire fighting. In this study, the national capabilities and requirements of Turkey for better wildfire fighting and prevention are reviewed. Additionally, the available tools and systems for Turkey are reviewed and compared with the other national systems.