Optimizing Firefighting Airport Selection for Effective Forest Fires: A Case Study of Guangxi, China

Forest fires pose a significant threat to global forest ecosystems and economies. Air tankers are crucial tools for effectively managing forest fires. To address the problem of selecting firefighting airport locations for air tankers, this paper proposes an improved weighted P-center model that considers demand levels at various points to optimize airport selection for aerial firefighting, focusing on Guangxi Province, China—a region heavily impacted by forest fires. The study demonstrates that the multi-airport model effectively addresses the problem of selecting optimal airport locations for air tankers. Using the proposed model, we determined an optimal scheme that significantly reduces flight times to fire locations compared to a single-airport approach. Specifically, selecting two airports resulted in a 37.1% reduction in maximum flight time and a 31.6% reduction in average flight time. These improvements significantly enhance firefighting efficiency and reduce response times, providing more time to extinguish forest fires. The proposed model is crucial for the effective management of large-scale and frequent forest fire rescue missions and offers a valuable tool for developing future aerial firefighting strategies in Guangxi and other fire-prone regions.