MEASURING THE SPATIAL READINESS OF AMBULANCE FACILITIES FOR NATURAL DISASTERS USING GIS NETWORKS ANALYSIS

The massive disasters that arise by nature and humanity are significantly leads to several losses in lives and infrastructures. Disasters such as chemical explosions, flash floods and volcanoes. The high level of preparedness from the governments and administration authorities and ambulance services can significantly reduce the losses in lives. The aim of this paper is to measure the spatial readiness of ambulance facilities for natural disasters using GIS networks analysis. The measurement performed based on three standards, the area covered by the ambulance service, speed of service and the proportion to the population. ArcGIS spatial analysis and network analysis tools employed to develop the coverage maps of the three measured standards. According to the analysis, 94.4% from the study area appeared within the standard distance (20 km) from the ambulance stations, while 91% from the study area appeared within the time response standard (15 minutes) from the ambulance stations. The study area has a deficit of 256,714 people and needs 5 additional ambulances to achieve the demographic standard. The main recommendation of this study is to apply this methodology regularly in the study area to avoid any weakness before the disasters and to increase the level of preparedness.