Optimal Number and Location of Watchtowers for Immediate Detection of Forest Fires in a Small Island

A crucial factor for prevention and immediate confrontation of destructive fires and their socioeconomic and environmental consequences constitutes the early detection and spatial localization of fire ignitions, so that the firefighting forces to be activated and act within the critical time of response. Thus, principal objective of the paper constitutes the spatial optimization of the most effective locations of watchtowers developing a constructive network for the immediate and early detection of forest fires. This optimization involves the exploration of the fewest locations for watchtowers with the maximum visible area and reduced degree of overlapping. The results highlighted 4 groups of watchtowers (20 observers in total) determining the optimum locations. The total visibility amounted to 70% of the island, while the visibility percentages per land cover are variable, since they are depended on the spatial structure of them. Definitely, the final selection of the final number and the spatial structure of the watchtowers purely constitute decisions of political nature and will.