A Model Proposal for Measuring Performance in Occupational Health and Safety in Forest Fires

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 15; no. 20; p. 14729
• Main Authors: Küçükarslan, Ali Bahadır, Köksal, Mustafa, Ekmekci, Ismail
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2023
• Subjects: Analysis; Biodiversity; Climate change; Decision-making; Ecosystems; Environmental protection; Fire hazards; Forest & brush fires; Forest fires; Forest management; Fuzzy logic; Greenhouse gases; Health aspects; Humidity; Land use; Measurement; Multiple criteria decision making; Natural resources; Neural networks; Occupational health; Risk assessment; Roads & highways; Sustainability; Sustainable forestry; Temperature; Vegetation; Wilderness areas; Workplace accidents; Turkey
• DOI: 10.3390/su152014729
• ISSN: 2071-1050

This study endeavors to prioritize occupational health and safety (OHS) accomplishments across ten forest management directorates in a specified province of Turkey, utilizing multi-criteria decision-making techniques (MCDMT). In a rigorous evaluation across four applied methodologies, the alternative P5 (amount of risk before measures) consistently exhibited superior performance. A notable emphasis of this research lies in the employment of a sophisticated OHS performance model, developed herein, to critically assess the OHS performance within these forest management directorates. In our evaluations, static variables such as land use and land cover, slope, vegetation type, soil characteristics, and distance from highways and human settlements were considered. Similarly, dynamic variables including temperature, wind speed and direction, and humidity were also factored in. Our findings corroborate the substantial ramifications, both tangible and intangible, of workplace accidents, hence underscoring the imperativeness of extensive, inter-industrial research initiatives geared towards effective accident prevention. This research is particularly focused on fortifying accident prevention measures in the arena of occupational health and safety during forest fires—an area with substantial economic and social implications, and of escalating importance in light of the expanding prominence of clean energy sources. Specifics pertaining to the forest fire rate within the studied directorates, as well as the criteria bearing the most and least impact as determined by this study, will be explicated in the full text, accompanied by their corresponding percentage values. Through the employment of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (F-AHP), and the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) method, this study demonstrates the efficacy of MCDMTs in assessing and categorizing OHS performance, hence contributing valuable insights to managers, OHS experts, and future research undertakings. In conclusion, this research concentrates on the formulation of employee-centric occupational health and safety systems, with a specific emphasis on forest fires. The proposed OHS performance index model represents a tool of exceptional potential in the evaluation of performance measurement, while addressing uncertainties across diverse sectors. This underscores the urgency of addressing health and sustainability issues within economic, social, and ecological domains through the rigorous examination and implementation of effective OHS practices.