Spatial performance to locate city fire stations.

Analysis of the spatial characteristics of disasters is a critical component of accurate disaster prevention planning and management. Reports from the Tainan City Fire Department were analysed to explore the spatial distribution of incident locations via address matching, spatial coordination transformation and GIS technologies. The characteristics of these locations were further investigated using spatial autocorrelation analysis in order to explore potential future demand for emergency rescue services. The performance levels of existing and newly added emergency rescue facilities were analysed using maximal covering location problem tests and Lagrangian heuristic calculations. These methods are able to simulate and analyse rescue performance after new facilities have been added to a system and the results can also be used to guide the future locations of rescue facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]