A new fuzzy location-based approach for fire station site selection in Tehran

Abstract The growing population density would increase the demand for urban facilities. One of the most important kinds of these facilities is fire stations, whose duties include securing, preventing, and fighting fire. One of the most important problems with fire stations could be their inappropriate distribution and, therefore, the limitation of their service area. So, optimal site selection of fire stations is considered the main problem in this study. The goal of our study is to do site selection in Tehran, the capital of Iran, by considering seven criteria: distance from existing fire stations, nearness to main roads, nearness to dense places, nearness to gas and fuel stations, nearness to historical, cultural and recreational sites (cinemas and museums), nearness to green spaces and nearness to evacuation places. These criteria maps were fuzzified with the help of a linear membership function. Then, they were overlaid with the Gamma fuzzy operation. Then the 5-minute service area of each station was computed and excluded from the decision space, and the places with high scores were determined as the best places to locate new fire stations. These places are located in five of Tehran's regions. These regions are 14, 15, 16, 17 and 20.