A Hybrid Approach Integrating Entropy-AHP and GIS for Suitability Assessment of Urban Emergency Facilities

Globalization has become a major issue of focus as rapid urban populations and urbanization effects are on the rise. A critical need arises for effective urban planning for Istanbul in relation to the use of a hybrid approach integrating AHP-Entropy and GIS for emergency facility planning. In this paper, the combination of AHP and Entropy methods was used for evaluating criterion weights subjectively and objectively. These techniques were utilized with regard to the assessment of suitable areas for planning new urban emergency facilities for Istanbul province which experiences increasing urban fire-related emergencies. AHP and Entropy have been used to evaluate the weights of determined criteria from expert preference judgments and GIS for processing, analysis and visualization of the model result in the form of a suitability map for new urban emergency facilities. Validation of the model was performed on the criteria with the strongest influence in the decision outcome and spatially visualized using the sensitivity analysis (SA) method of one-at-a-time (OAT). From the findings, it was estimated that 28.1% of the project area, accounting for a third of it, is likely to be exposed to the risk of urban fires and therefore immediate planning of new urban emergency facilities is recommended for adequate fire service coverage and protection.