Emergency Service Location Study for Kyrenia City in Cyprus

ABSTRACT: Considering the attractiveness of one of the cities in Cyprus, known as Kyrenia, among tourists due to its historical buildings and touristic environment, it is crucial to protect the area from fire. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify suitable locations for a fire station which has been achieved through applying the Quantum Geographic Information Systems (QGIS) software and Python Programming Language. In this thesis, a detailed study was conducted for the city of Kyrenia to identify links and nodes, travel times, and superimpose these data on an existing digital map of the City in geographic information system was utilized to assess the current situation and develop alternatives for fire station or other emergency services locations to minimize access time. Python programming language was used for optimization process and Quantum GIS software was used to present the findings as isochrones. The findings are expected to benefit the society by allowing shorter response times if the recommendations are implemented by the government or local agencies. This study seeks to initiate the service coverage modeling including regions with less amount of expenses as well as roads with less records of traffic and accident. Furthermore, the study, through the application of GIS is managed to locate sections of the city where the maximal service area problems exist (MSAP). In addition, applying Python in the GIS let the research to be able to recognize the best location due to travel time among different parts of the city. In this research, the entire possible locations for building Emergency Service Location were recognized by GIS, followed by selecting possible nodes in all intersections. Also, wherever there was lack of intersections in a wide distance, in recognized places, randomly were selected as possible nodes. Among all possible nodes (1746 different nodes), only one was selected as the best possible place for building fire station. Based on the procedures of the modeling selection in Python programming, it was declared that only node number 1225 carried the characteristics of the best node for fire station in Kyrenia, the other nodes were considered as alternative nodes after the first one. If there seem to have any problem in constructing the building, the others nodes can be the next choices. Keywords: Emergency Service Location, Fire Station, Geographic Information System, Travel Time, Isochrones, Python Programming Language. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………