Helicopter Takeoff and Landing Point Location in Cities for Emergency Services

In low-altitude rescue, civilian helicopters, relying on their speed, efficiency and flexibility, play at center stage. Due to the terrain restrictions of the disaster area, it is difficult for helicopters to carry out safe and efficient rescue in cities. In order to facilitate emergency rescue, fixed helicopter takeoff and landing points for rescue missions must be selected strategically and wisely. However, the traditional method is to analyze the satellite data and conduct field surveys manually, which is rather subjective. A scientific, simple and efficient method of location selection is in urgent need. This paper analyzes the normativeness of the location of the helicopter’s take-off and landing point and establishes a model of the slope and undulation of the landing site. It utilizes ArcGIS software to build layers and selects for the terrain element models that meet the specifications. It also studies the rescue radius commonly used in the world and then maximizes the location range of the take-off and landing point based on the greedy algorithm. Considering the construction cost, the final optimized site selection result is obtained. The results show that the use of GIS space technology can effectively select suitable take-off and landing points and gain valuable time for low-altitude rescue.