Assessment of hospital sites’ suitability by spatial information technologies using AHP and GIS-based multi-criteria approach of Rajpur–Sonarpur Municipality

Abstract

Hospital has become a most important facility to cure people’s health-related problems and improve standard healthy life. In Rajpur–Sonarpur Municipality, populations are increasing rapidly due to urbanization and this area suffers from unequal distribution of hospitals. One government hospital and a few health centres are there. Site selection of any area or hospital with some specific selected criteria is a very difficult process. It is not only the technical buildup, but also social, environmental and political conflicting points. The high income people can easily afford the best health facility. They go to Kolkata for better treatment. Geographic information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) were used for hospital site selection. Due to the areal condition, we used 12 criteria. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and pairwise comparison method were used for weighted calculation of each criterion and spatial analysis of GIS-based system to create the factor map and suitability map. Each criteria map was classified from 1 (Low suitable) to 10 (highly Suitable) for their area for this site selection. All factors map were overlaid using the ArcGIS weighted overlay selection tool. The final map is represented the hospital site suitability area in Rajpur–Sonarpur Municipality and it is being presented from the highly suitable 3.4514% (169.97 ha) to not suitable area 23.9562% (1179.85 ha). The result shows that the northern part of this area is best for all criteria due to the density of the population. The south and middle part of this area are moderate or less suitable site for a new hospital.