Modelling and Planning locations of Civil Defense Centers in Irbid Governorate using GIS-based Location Allocation Model

Abstract

The study aims to evaluate the locations of the existing civil defense centers in Irbid governorate regarding to population, buildings, and accidents densities within the governorate. In addition, GIS-based Location-Allocation Model and Network Analysis methods were used, in this study the study, to define the optimal locations for new suggested civil defense centers to fit with the number of population, buildings and accidents in the governorate in order to improve the efficiency and equity of these centers. The study results showed differences in the importance of the civil defense centers based on the served number of population, buildings and accidents, and the civil defense centers were then, classified into three categories (centers with high, medium, or low importance) based on the importance of their locations for the population and buildings served as well as the number of accidents using the Ordinal Scale method. The results have also showed that only 147 out of 189 neighborhoods are covered and served by the existing civil defense centers using the proposed time of 7-minute coverage. Therefore, the study suggested six new civil defense centers to be established that raise the number of served neighborhoods to181 using the GIS-based Location-Allocation Model.