Flexible design of a helipad network for forest firefighting helicopters, applied to the case of Sardinia [Chapter 7]

Cost-effective strategic management of aerial forest fire suppression resources involves decisions about fleet location, in order to efficiently match supply and demand. In this study, we explore the flexible design of such a system, pooling the demand of several bases into a “zone”, and analyzing alternative partitions of the territory into zones. Feasible partitions consider an upper limit on the distance between bases, and require their adjacency, within the same zone. Then, we classify the feasible partitions according to a set of six criteria and explore the non-dominated partitions. Finally, we select the preferred partition, with the support of several experts, by applying the AHP method. The considered criteria evaluate, for each partition, the (c1) mean and the (c2) value at risk of the number of unattended active fires, the (c3) helicopter idleness, and the (c4-6) Gini index for each of the previous three criteria.