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Public Forest Enterprise “”Forests of Republic of Srpska",, Public Forest Enterprise “”Forests of Republic of Srpska" , Banja Luka , Bosnia and Herzegovina
Faculty of Computer Sciences, Pan-European University APEIRON , Banja Luka , Bosnia and Herzegovina
This paper presents the results of a spatio-temporal analysis of the availability of helicopter capacities of the Helicopter Service of the Republic of Srpska for forest fire suppression. The analysis included two existing helicopter bases located in Banja Luka and Trebinje, conducted using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Spatial data on the administrative boundaries of the Republic of Srpska, technical specifications of the A 119 helicopter type (maximum speed of 281 km/h) equipped with the Bambi Bucket 2024 system, as well as vegetation data from the CORINE Land Cover database, were used. Travel-time zones of 10, 20, 30, and 40 minutes flight were generated, with an additional one hour required for helicopter and crew preparation. The analysis calculated the percentage of the Republic of Srpska's territory covered within each zone and the percentage coverage of high fire-risk areas defined by CORINE vegetation classes (311, 312, 313, 321, 322, 323, 324). The results show that the combined coverage of the two bases provides significant territorial reach, although certain mountainous and border areas remain outside optimal response times, especially in shorter time intervals. The findings can serve as a basis for optimizing the allocation of helicopter resources and improving forest fire protection strategies.
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