CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABILITY, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE 2 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DECEMBER 2018

A GIS based Fire Station Site Selection using Network Analysis and Set
Covering Location Problem (Case study: Tehran, Iran)
Davoodi, M.,* and Mesgari, M.S.
Faculty of Geodesy and Geomatics, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; * mojtaba.davoodi@ut.ac.ir
Abstract—The process of fire stations site selection is always traditionally based on the experience of a few people in some
special organizations or with regard to available facilities in cities. On the other hand, the proper distribution of fire stations is
essential in order to provide relief to vulnerable areas in times of crisis. In the meantime, the correct, accurate and scientific
site selection of the fire stations will be an important step in improving the relief operation during the crisis. In this research,
a hybrid model has been developed based on Network Analysis and Set Covering Location Problem (SCLP) for the site
selection of fire stations in Tehran, Iran. At first, the areas that are covered by the 3-minute standard time of 112 existing fire
stations were found on Tehran road network. Then the operational areas of the fire stations were divided into 308 sub-areas
and the centers of these areas were considered as demand points in order to respond within the 3-minute standard. By examining
the coverage matrix for 112 fire stations, 86% of the areas were covered by standard relief time. By solving the scenario, 29
sub-areas were designed to achieve 100% coverage of sub-areas.
Keywords—geographical information system, fire station, site selection, network analysis, set covering location problem

I. INTRODUCTION

E VERY year many people lose their lives due to various accidents such as fires. The inappropriate dispersion of fire stations
can be considered as one of its reasons. Unfortunately, since site selection of many fire stations were based on the
experience of traditional experts and traditional methods, their inadequate dispersion always causes problems in standard
response time of 3 minutes. Accidents are considered as part of the inevitable reality that the control of their occurrence is
largely out of the reach of human beings, but they can be minimized by taking measures to reduce the effects of these incidents.
One of the challenges of responding to emergencies is access to the accident site in the shortest possible time, which will be
effective in reducing damages. Delay in response time increases the damage and may cause death, while timely responses, in
addition to preventing material damage, will save people. Facility placement is one of the key elements in the strategic decision-
making and strategic planning of public and private sector organizations. Therefore, location issues are some of the most
important issues that have attracted the attention of many researchers, because the proper use of these methods in many
applications around the world has led to a significant reduction cost and will cover more demand points.
Due to the necessity of access to the fire area in the shortest possible time, the location of the stations is required to be at
a distance that at least the first car reaches the incident at the last point of coverage in standard time of 3 minutes. In this
research, firstly, coverage of demand examined by existing fire stations and then a model was developed to minimize the
number of sub-areas for the construction of a fire station in order to achieve 100% coverage.

II. PREVIOUS RESEARCH

One of the problems of locating emergency equipment is the location of fire stations, which, due to the great importance
of rescuing people in firefighting, have been the subject of many studies in the developed countries to select appropriate places
for the fire stations. The first studies on the location of fire stations are referred to Valinskaya studies, in which it was suggested
that the optimal solution is to reduce the total loss of fire and the cost of providing services to the lowest possible extent [1].
In other words, suitable fire stations site selection can have the following benefits: 1) It can reduce the distance between
fire stations and accident locations to improve response times. 2) Minimizing overlapping of fire station services to improve
the effective use of resources. 3) Can determine the appropriate number of fire stations in one area, taking into account the
economic conditions between the accident casualty costs, the total cost of preparation and operational costs [2].
In recent years, the issue of the location of emergency equipment and relief supplies has attracted considerable attention
in scientific and academic communities. Başar et al have developed theoretical and practical foundations for locating
emergency equipment. The three following approaches are: a) queue models; and simulations; and c) mathematical models.
The most well-known mathematical models, including the cover coating model provided by Torgas, and the maximum
coverage model developed by Church and Roll. This paper focuses on the use of math models based on coverage [3].
The issue of maximum spatial coverage was first introduced by Revelle and Church. It has been proved that this issue, in
terms of technical competence and practical importance, has a major contribution to location analysis and modeling. A number
of commercial software packages based on a spatial information system such as ArcGIS and TransCAD, has also been
synchronized for general use. This paper provides an overview of the problem of maximum coverage of fire stations [4].
Yücel and Salman examined the issue of covering urban emergency infrastructures in the event of a collapse in the urban
road network in Istanbul. By a systematic model, we can predict access from supply-to-demand points, which results in more
effective decisions about the location of emergency infrastructures. For this purpose and assuming that the failure of a network
edge (street) damages adjacent edges that are also more vulnerable to structural damage, the impact of the accident distance
can be modeled by the accidental damage on network edges (streets). From any available supply point for each point of
demand, a set of alternative routes is created, so for the sake of ease of post-accident transfer, the shortest relief route will be
used. The goal is to maximize the expected demand coverage with a clear distance across the entire network [5].

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 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABILITY, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT 2018
SPECIAL ISSUE 2 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DECEMBER 2018

Van Den Berg et al in collaboration with the Amsterdam Fire Department in the Netherlands, presented a computational
programming model for determining the optimal locations of the main stations and the optimal distribution of firefighting
machines at these stations. An extensive analysis of a large collection of data from the Fire Department of Amsterdam shows
that: 1. Only by moving three bases from the current locations, more than 50% of the delays of the fire department can be
reduced; 2. Adding new locations to improve performance is not necessary: Optimizing the location of current stations is
effective and cost savings. The results show that with little investment in the relocation and transfer of a few stations, there is
a huge potential for a significant reduction in fire hazard delays [6].

III. METHOD OF RESEARCH

Facility location has several main features of space, measurement criteria, sets of demand points and sets of service centers
for candidates. The need for service points is met by selecting service centers and allocating them to these points. Finding the
location of a number of service centers and determining how they are allocated to demand points is to maximize the profits or
minimize the costs. In general, the term placement refers to modeling, formulating and solving problems that can be defined
by placing the facility in the best available space.
In complete coverage models with a covering limit, the radius of the fire stations is considered to be 3 minutes, that is,
from the moment of departure of the fire department from the relevant station to the fire point, Shouldn’t be more than 3
minute. It should be noted that in this research, covering a region means covering the center of that area within 3 minutes.
In this research, we are looking for all neighborhoods and points to be covered within 3 minutes, which is achieved using
Set Covering Location Problem. The collection coverage model is designed to minimize the number of stations, so that all
demand points are covered. And any demand point is covered at least by a dish facilitator or a critical time. The relationships
used in this model are as follows.

Min ∑ ∑c
j ∈J k ∈K
k x jk (1) ∑ ∑d
j ∈N i k ∈K
ij x jk ≥ 1 ∀i ∈ I (2)

∑x
k ∈K
jk
≤ 1 ∀j ∈ J (3) x jk ∈ {0,1} ∀j ∈ J , ∀k ∈ K (4)

I: a set of demand points, J: a set of candidate points for the construction of a fire station, 𝐶𝐶𝑘𝑘 : the cost of the construction and
commissioning of each fire station of K, 𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 : travel time between two zones i and j, 𝑋𝑋𝑖𝑖𝑘𝑘 : A decision variable is zero and one if
a fire station K is set to j, one and otherwise is zero. On the other hand, the objective function (1) minimizes the cost of
stationing the required stations. Limit (2) ensures that stations that cover each area can respond to the number of fires in that
area. Limitation (3) states that at each point of the candidate it is allowed to be constructed A fire station is also present.
Limitation (4) also shows that the model is a linear programming problem.

IV. RESULTS
In this research, Tehran was selected as the study area due to the huge part of the important and vital infrastructure of the
country and the population. The most important data used in this research is the road network of Tehran. Because analysis of
the coverage of stations on the road network can be implemented. This information includes highways, main and secondary
arteries, and collectors and distributors. Other 112 fire stations data are available. On the other hand, Tehran's regions were
divided into 308 sub-districts, according to the urban road network, and population density, that center of sub-areas were used
as demand points as well as candidate seats for the construction of new fire stations. All points are mapped based on the WGS
84 reference ellipsoid and displayed in the UTM system.
As mentioned, the used network includes highway, first grade arterial road, second grade arterial road, and collector road,
followed by calculating the of 3-minute coverage. On the other hand, the operation speed for the city network of Tehran was
considered as Table 1. It should be explained that the “operating speed” is 85% of the maximum authorized speed (operating
speed = maximum authorized speed * 0.85). This is due to the lack of access to traffic information and the traffic load on urban
roads.

TABLE I
OPERATING SPEED OF ROADS
Road Type Highway Arterial (first grade) Arterial (second grade) Collector
Operating Speed (km/h) 76.5 76.5 51 34

Considering the speed in Table 1 for the defined roads in the spatial database and the establishment of the city network
in Tehran, using the network analysis tool in spatial information systems, 3-minute coverage of existing fire stations and
centers of sub-areas are displayed in Figure 1.
By examining the coverage matrix for existing fire stations and Set Covering Location Problem formula, 86% of the areas
are covered in 3 minutes, accounting for 84% of the fire events in these areas. In Figure 2, areas outside the 3-minute coverage
of fire stations are shown. Therefore, it is necessary to specify for the coverage of 100% of the candidate points according to

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 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABILITY, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT 2018
SPECIAL ISSUE 2 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DECEMBER 2018

the areas considered.

Figure 1. 3-minute coverage of existing fire stations and sub-area centers.

Figure 2. Out of standard 3-minute coverage.

Similarly, for the center of areas, the matrix of the coverage was extracted. By solving the scenario presented in the
research method, 29 sub-regions were obtained to achieve coverage of 100%. We can construct new fire stations in these
specific sub-regions to achieve 100% coverage in Tehran city.
The coverage matrix that used was calculated according to the center of the areas as demand points. So that if any of these
areas covered by each of the fire stations is displayed as 1, otherwise it will be marked with 0. In Table 2, a section of the
coverage matrix is given.

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 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABILITY, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT 2018
SPECIAL ISSUE 2 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DECEMBER 2018

TABLE II
A SECTION OF THE COVERAGE MATRIX

V. CONCLUSION
According to the coverage matrix, 42 sub-areas were not covered by any fire station at standard time of 3 minutes. These
sub regions are shown in Table 2. In other words, 86% of the areas below are at least covered by a fire station, and the rest are
not covered by standard coverage. By solving the scenario in order to reach 100% coverage in the whole city of Tehran,
according to the urban network, 29 sub-areas were obtained, with the construction of fire stations in these areas, we will be
witnessed the coverage of all demand points in standard 3-minute coverage.

REFERENCES
[1] D. Valinsky, “Symposium on Applications of Operations Research to Urban Services—A Determination of the Optimum Location of Fire-Fighting
Units in New York City,” J. Oper. Res. Soc. Am., vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 494–512, Nov. 1955.
[2] G. H. Tzeng and Y. W. Chen, “The optimal location of airport fire stations: A fuzzy multi-objective programming and revised genetic algorithm
approach,” Transp. Plan. Technol., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 37–55, 1999.
[3] A. Başar, B. Çatay, and T. Ünlüyurt, “A taxonomy for emergency service station location problem,” Optim. Lett., vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 1147–1160, 2012.
[4] C. ReVelle and K. Hogan, “A Reliability-Constrained Siting Model with Local Estimates of Busy Fractions,” Environ. Plan. B Plan. Des., vol. 15, no.
2, pp. 143–152, Jun. 1988.
[5] F. S. Salman and E. Yücel, “Emergency facility location under random network damage: Insights from the Istanbul case,” Comput. Oper. Res., vol. 62,
pp. 266–281, Oct. 2015.
[6] P. L. Van Den Berg, G. A. G. Legemaate, and R. D. van der Mei, “Increasing the Responsiveness of Firefighter Services by Relocating Base Stations in
Amsterdam,” Interfaces, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 352–361, May 2017.

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