Emergency response during disastrous situation in densely populated urban areas: A GIS based approach

Abstract

Geographical Information System (GIS) has widely been used in various steps of emergency management to contain the damages during any natural or manmade disasters within limit. This study presents how effectively GIS can be used for emergency management for one of the most densely populated areas of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. With the first-hand baseline information from field survey an optimum route model has been proposed to represent the travel time of road network in congested scenario. The vulnerable parts of the study area are exposed based on emergency response time of firefighting stations and medical facilities, and distance from evacuation points. Some emergency response units have been suggested to enhance the disaster preparedness of the study area. Furthermore, the state of practice spatial analyses method presented in this study can be utilized in different spatial scales especially in regard to developing countries.