A Disaster Risk Preparedness Management Plan for Markets in Mubi Town, Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study evaluates disaster risk preparedness in major commercial markets within Mubi Town, Adamawa State, Nigeria, with a view to identifying hazard hotspots, structural deficiencies, and formulating a proactive, GIS-based disaster risk management plan. Major markets in developing urban centres face recurrent catastrophes, notably destructive fire outbreaks, exacerbated by high stall densities, combustible building materials, infrastructural deficits, and reactive emergency administration. Data for the study were obtained through both primary and secondary sources, comprising Global Positioning System (GPS) field coordinates of market boundaries, stall footprints, water sources, transformers, and hazardous activity points, paired with high-resolution georeferenced satellite imagery, physical lane width measurements, structured questionnaires administered to 384 market stakeholders, and document review of historical fire records. The data collected were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and advanced spatial analysis within an ArcGIS Pro environment, utilizing Buffer Analysis, Network Analysis, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) via Weighted Overlay. The empirical findings indicate that 74.2% of market stalls are constructed from highly combustible temporary materials (timber, thatch, and corrugated iron sheets), while 68.5% of internal circulation lanes measure less than 2.0 metres in width, severely impeding fire appliance navigability. Critical firefighting infrastructure is virtually non-existent; the entire metropolitan area lacks functional municipal fire hydrants and relies on a severely under-resourced fire station with only one functional water tender. Spatial buffer analysis revealed that 63.8% of commercial stalls are situated within high-hazard impact zones (<20 m) of unregulated fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vendors. Furthermore, composite multi-criteria risk mapping established that 58.4% of the aggregate market acreage falls within the "High" and "Extreme" vulnerability classes. Stakeholder evaluation of institutional coordination yielded a grand mean score of 1.74 on a 4-point scale, demonstrating severe institutional fragmentation among local government authorities, emergency agencies, and market associations. The study recommends the official integration of market management committees into municipal disaster risk governance, the immediate installation of dedicated pressurized fire hydrants, statutory enforcement of a minimum 3.5-metre emergency lane clearance, strict spatial zoning of hazardous commodity vendors, and the institutionalization of a GIS-based spatial decision support tool for proactive disaster mitigation.