Distance and Coverage: An Assessment of Location-Allocation Models for Fire Stations in Kuwait City

135 Pages·2011·2.84 MB·English

DISTANCE AND COVERAGE: AN ASSESSMENT OF LOCATION-ALLOCATION
MODELS FOR FIRE STATIONS IN KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT

A dissertation submitted
to Kent State University in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy

by

Saad M Algharib

August, 2011
Dissertation written by
Saad M. Algharib
B.A., Kuwait University at Kuwait, 1997
M.A., Kent State University, 2008
Ph.D., Kent State University, 2011

Approved by

______________________________, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee
Jay Lee

______________________________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee
Mandy Munro-Stasiuk

______________________________,
Debarchana Ghosh

______________________________,
Eric S. Jefferis

Accepted by

______________________________, Chair, Department of Geography
Mandy Munro-Stasiuk

______________________________, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
John R. D. Stalvey

ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... v

LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... ix

Chapter Page

1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Research Problem .......................................................................................... 3
1.3 Study Area .................................................................................................... 7

2 BACKGROUND AND RELEVANT LITERATURE ........................................... 15

2.1 The Background of Location-Allocation Models ............................................. 15
2.2 Relevant Literature .......................................................................................... 22
2.2.1 Application of Location-Allocation Models for Assessing
and Locating Fire Stations .................................................................. 25

3 METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................. 31

3.1 Location-Allocation Models within the Environment of GIS (ArcGIS) ........... 35
3.1.1 Minimize Impedance Problem ............................................................. 35
3.1.2 Maximize Coverage Problem ............................................................... 37
3.1.3 Minimize Facilities Problem ................................................................ 40
3.1.4 Maximize Attendance Problem ........................................................... 41
3.2 The Difference among Location-Allocation Problems ..................................... 42
3.3 Research Data ................................................................................................. 43
3.4 Data Preparation.............................................................................................. 45

4 ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 62

4.1 Results of Applying Location-Allocation Models for the Year 2005 ............ 63
4.2 Results of Applying Location-Allocation Models for the Year 2008 ............. 67
4.3 Comparison of the Four Location-Allocation Models ................................... 75
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)

Chapter Page

4.4 Assessing the Spatial Distribution of Covered and Uncovered Areas ........... 86
4.5 Evaluating All Location-Allocation Models with Different Types of
Spatial Patterns ............................................................................................ 96

5 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 104

6 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 111

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 118

iv
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1 Fire Occurrences and the distribution of fire stations in Kuwait, 2008 ............... 11

2 Distribution of population in Kuwait by districts, 2008 ...................................... 12

3 Processes of data preparation ............................................................................. 46

4 Distribution of fire occurrences in 2005 and 2008 .............................................. 48

5 Distribution of population in 2005 and 2008 ...................................................... 49

6 Distribution of fires divided by population in each district ................................. 51

7 Distribution of combined variables using the multiplication function ................ 53

8 Distribution of combined variables by adding the percent of fires to the
percent of population in each district .................................................................. 55

9 Processes for creating the location-allocation analysis layer and running all
location-allocation models ................................................................................. 58

10 Different outcomes between the first three models and maximize
attendance problem ........................................................................................... 65

11 Distribution of covered and uncovered districts in 2005 ..................................... 72

12 Distribution of covered and uncovered districts in 2008 ..................................... 73

13 Difference among the location-allocation models applied to population
in 2008 ............................................................................................................... 84

14 Difference among the location-allocation models applied to fire
occurrences in 2008 ........................................................................................... 85

v
LIST OF FIGURES (Continued)

Figure Page

15 Distribution of covered and uncovered districts generated from using
location allocation models with the number of fires in 2005………..…………..88

16 Covered and uncovered areas generated from using location-allocation models
with the number of population in each district in 2005………………….………89

17 Distribution of covered and uncovered districts generated from using
location-allocation models with fire data in 2008…………………………..…...90

18 Distribution of covered and uncovered areas generated from using
location- allocation models with Population data in 2008 .................................. 91

19 Clustering of high and low values for the covered and uncovered districts
in 2005 and 2008................................................................................................ 93

20 Distribution of local Moran's I index values for the covered and uncovered
areas in 2005 and 2008 ....................................................................................... 94

21 Distribution of Z-scores for the covered and uncovered areas in 2005
and 2008 .......................................................................................................... ..95

22 Result generated from applying location-allocation models for different
types of spatial patterns ...................................................................................... 99

23 Number of districts covered with fire data set in different types of
spatial patterns .................................................................................................. .99

24 Total area covered with fire data set in different types of spatial patterns.......... 100

25 Result generated from applying location-allocation models for different
types of spatial patterns ................................................................................... 100

26 Number of districts covered with population data set in different types of spatial
Patterns ............................................................................................................ 101

vi
LIST OF FIGURES (Continued)

Figure Page

27 Total area covered with population data set in different types of
spatial patterns ................................................................................................. 101

vii
LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1 Total Population in Kuwait and Each Governorate ............................................... 8

2 Fires that Occurred in Farwaniya in 2008 ........................................................... 44

3 Population and Fires Covered and Uncovered in Kuwait for the Year 2005 ........ 66

4 Population and Fires Covered and Uncovered in Kuwait for the Year 2008 ........ 69

5 Number of Districts Covered in Kuwait for the Years 2005 and 2008 by
Using Different Variables .................................................................................. 75

6 Number of Population and Districts Covered Obtained from Applying
Minimize Impedance Model for the Year 2008 .................................................. 76

7 Number of Fires and Districts Covered Obtained from Applying Minimize
Impedance Model for the Year 2008 .................................................................. 77

8 Number of Population and Districts Covered Obtained from Applying
Maximize Coverage Model for the Year 2008 .................................................... 78

9 Number of Fires and Districts Covered Obtained from Applying Maximize
Coverage Model for the Year 2008 .................................................................... 79

10 Number of Population and Districts Covered Obtained from Applying
Maximize Attendance Model for the Year 2008 ................................................. 81

11 Number of Fires and Districts Covered Obtained from applying Maximize
Attendance Model for the Year 2008 .................................................................. 82

12 Index Values for both Population and Fire Layers .............................................. 98

viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my great gratitude and appreciation to my committee
members, Dr. Jay Lee, Dr. Mandy Munro-Stasiuk, Dr. Debarchana Ghosh, and Dr. Eric
S. Jefferis. I would like to thank them for advising and providing me thoughtful critiques
to accomplish this dissertation. Their comments were very instrumental for improving the
quality of this dissertation. I thank them all. I especially want to thank my dissertation
advisor, Dr. Jay Lee. He encouraged and challenged me throughout my academic
program. Through his ideas, comments, suggestions and constructive criticism, I was able
to complete this work successfully.
I would also like to thank the Department of Geography at Kuwait University for
their financial support which gave me the opportunity to pursue my education in the
United States. And especially to God, who made all things possible. Also, I extend my
gratitude to many people who have helped and encouraged me to further my studies.
Without them I could not have completed this project successfully.
I owe a great of gratitude to my family for their support. I especially want to
thank my wife for her support and encouragement during my graduate studies here in U.S
all the time. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my wife and children (Anwar 10
years old, Aseel 8 years old, Fajer 6 years old and Omar 1 year old). Without their love
and sacrifice, I would not have achieved all I have done today.
ix
CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Selecting and finding the best locations for facilities of emergency services, such
as ambulances and fire stations are among major goals of most local governments
(municipal levels) around the world. Determining where to place emergency facilities and
how many of these facilities are needed are challenges that policy makers are concerned
with in modern cities. One of the solutions that decision makers and city planners utilized
when attempting to find the optimal locations for locating the emergency service facilities
may be solutions that are generated by using what is known as location-allocation
models. Location-allocation models select the optimal locations of facilities from a set of
candidate locations in the most efficient manner and assign the demands for the services
to these locations based on the distribution of demands.
In addition to finding the optimal location for new facilities, location-allocation
models can be appropriate tools for ensuring emergency services to cover all the demands
that need covered in a most effective way. Increasingly, locating emergency service
facilities (site selection) and allocating demands to these locations have been
implemented within the environment of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The
fundamental objectives of locating emergency service facilities are to provide service
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