The use of GIS and multi-criteria decision-making as a decision tool in forestry

Geographical information systems (GIS) provide forest managers with tools to use in planning forest operations by allowing them to visualize and integrate data into the planning decisions. As the forest planning process becomes increasingly complicated, there is a need to assist forest planners with operative tools. The combined use of GIS and multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM) allows forest managers to visualize solutions proposed by MCDM and to have a better understanding of the problem they confront. The main purpose of this paper is to show the integration of GIS and the analytic hierarchy process for forest firefighting planning.