Abstract

An Automated, Multi-Criteria, Weighted Overlay Approach to Helicopter Landing Zones
Track: Defense and Intelligence
Authors: Barry Miller

Helicopter landing zone suitability analysis uses GIS to identify safe landing locations for military operations, medical evacuations, and logistics planning. This paper describes the development and methodologies of an ArcGIS script tool using Python that automates the HLZ analysis process. The script is pre-loaded with common helicopter types and their corresponding HLZ criteria based on day or night conditions to include: the maximum ceiling, acceptable slope, and minimum surface area. Also taken into account are suitable land cover and soil classification values, and distances from vertical obstructions and roads. Values are reclassified to represent highly, moderately, and barely suitable ranges. These results were combined with a weighted overlay based on the operational environment (urban, forest, desert, etc). The weights are determined using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and a pairwise comparison of criteria. The final HLZ sites include an overall suitability assessment so the user can rank-order the results.