Developing Geospatial Database For Emergency Response; A Case Study of Fire, Health And Security Facilities in Rivers State

Abstract

Effective and efficient emergency management and response requires having the right information within the shortest possible time frame in order to save lives and property, this also involves the free flow of the right information in the right format, to the right person, in the right time to make the right decision. The aim of this research is to evaluate benefits of the use of Geoinformatics technology in emergency management to assist in planning and acting as a decision support system to Fire, Health and Security emergency managers. In this research, Rivers state fire stations were evaluated as a unit of emergency delivery system, the research examined the role of Geoinformatics in evaluating the performance of emergency fire service delivery based on response time and fire station distribution. Using ArcGIS Network analysis and an annual fire incident record from year 2000-2012, the study revealed that the functional fire stations operating in Rivers state were unable to cover the entire populated regions within 5 minutes response time. In the case of this research the primary question that was addressed was; "Does everyone have access to rescue services within five minutes of travel time?" The research concluded by proposing the location of three fire stations using location allocation tool to help reduce the burden of other fire station and ensured ninety five percent (95%) wider coverage and reduced response time. This research also recommended that more efforts should be channeled towards curbing the practice of illegal and crude ways of refining petroleum products in the state; hence the result of the partial correlation of the variables associated with causes of fire incidents in Rivers State indicates a huge influence of kerosene explosion. The nearest neigbour index (RN) of 0.59 for Hospital indicates a clustered pattern of distribution of health facilities in Rivers State, hence there should be deliberate policies to ensure regular pattern of distribution which allows spatial equidistance to these facilities Due to the unavailability of current Population data the research was carried out using 2006 population data of the study area which do not extensively cover the remote communities This researcher suggested the following areas for further study; The spatial distribution of fire incident in Rivers state in relation to the underlying social composition of the population using derivative index analysis, the use of web based GIS for effective emergency responds could be a viable area to explore. The spatiotemporal location and relocation of stationary ambulance service in a bid to provide even service delivery within the city