Navigating urban challenges: Quantifying emergency service accessibility and robustness amid meteorological disasters

Abstract

The frequent occurrence of meteorological disasters presents a significant challenge to the effective functioning of urban public services. This paper seeks to assess the response capacity of urban emergency services during such disasters by integrating perspectives on accessibility and robustness. Through a case study on emergency medical services (EMS), we develop a framework for evaluating the EMS system in downtown Shanghai under the scenario of typhoon In-Fa. This framework encompasses the calculation of both the accessible area of ambulance vehicles and the accessibility to each resident address. Our findings indicate that under normal conditions, the majority of residential areas in downtown Shanghai can access nearby medical services within 10 min. However, accessibility decreases by 28.85 % and 43.83 % under moderate and severe flooding conditions, respectively. Furthermore, by analyzing changes in the robustness of the service supply network, we identify warning and critical points, offering valuable insights for the formulation of disaster warning and response strategies. This study integrates system-level robustness and address-level accessibility to establish a comprehensive framework for evaluating urban emergency service performance under meteorological disaster scenarios. The proposed approach holds promise for evaluating other types of public services by adapting the framework to account for specific supply and demand dynamics.