Abstract
Aim: The purpose of the article was to prepare maps of the territorial distribution of fire and local hazards, taking into account the effects assigned to them, depending on the size of these events in the Masovian Voivodeship. In addition, the goal was to make proposals for using these maps to compare all examined areas in terms of event distribution levels, as well as types and sizes of incidents, with a special purpose of supporting the process of organising the national firefighting and rescue system.
Project and methods: The Geographic Information System (GIS) was used for event distribution mapping. The input data were statistical data from the list of events made available by the National Headquarters of the State Fire Service for operations carried out in 2018, and a layer of spatial data representing the surfaces of poviats of the Masovian Voivodeship from the National Register of Boundaries. The adopted method of event distribution analysis is based on the number of events with the effects attributed to them. Based on the maximum number of events of a given size, the authors determined the class for that number of events. A similar procedure was used to determine the class of effects, but here, too, it was dependent on the size of events. Distribution levels were established on a four-point scale, including event number and effect parameters. The distribution is visualised on the maps based on the adopted four-level scale of distribution levels and presented in the event matrix. The colours corresponding to a given level of event distribution have been assigned to poviat territories.
Results: As a result of the event distribution analysis, event distribution maps were obtained. These show for what sizes of fires and local hazards the distribution reaches such levels as low, medium, high and very high. The distribution of events from the perspective of a single poviat was presented using an event matrix, which, in turn, made it possible to compare all examined events, as well as fires and local hazards.
Conclusions: The proposed method of using statistical data and their integration with spatial data in the GIS in an accessible way allows users to carry out distribution analysis and adjust event distribution levels to poviat areas. The presented method was recommended for use in education in the field of fire protection, as implemented during studies at The Main School of Fire Service, as a supplement to methods for analysing and visualising hazards.
Keywords: fire, National Firefighting and Rescue System, local hazard, hazard distribution
Type of article: original scientific article