SCENARIO-BASED LOCATION OF AMBULANCES FOR SPATIOTEMPORAL CLUSTERS OF EVENTS AND STOCHASTIC VEHICLE AVAILABILITY. A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS APPROACH.

Abstract

Facility location through the utilization of location-allocation models is a scientific field that
has been rapidly growing over the last 60 years. Especially in countries where there is an
increased need for new infrastructure and services while resources and funding availability is
limited, their application in solving respective problems can be effective both in catalyzing
needs as well as minimizing required budget and costs. In this context, new models,
improved algorithms and alternative methodological approaches have been constantly arising.
In Greece, unfortunately, the use of these models is not a common practice in locational
projects and studies resulting in relatively limited corresponding experience and research. In
this paper we present S-Distance, a stand alone locational analysis and planning support
system, initially designed at the Laboratory for Spatial Analysis, GIS and Thematic
Cartography in the University of Thessaly, Greece and currently under further development
by the GeoCHOROS Geospatial Analysis and GIS Research Group at the National Technical
University of Athens, Greece. The operational validity of the proposed system was verified
for the location of ambulances in the metropolitan area of Volos and Nea Ionia in Greece.