Location-Allocation Modeling for Emergency Evacuation Planning in a Smart City Context

Abstract

The transition of a city to a smart city depends on the preservation of open spaces because they can ensure both a safe and a quality living. In a smart city context, it is important for planners to pre-allocate resources during planning phase in order to satisfy the demand during catastrophic events. Geo-computation approaches can contribute towards the spatial-optimization of urban open-spaces for evacuation purposes in cases of catastrophic events. This work will use a location allocation spatial model to facilitate the planing of urban evacuation actions in Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece. Spatial analysis techniques have evolved during the last decades, mainly due to increased computation resources and other complementary technological advances. In this article, the authors attempt to show the contribution of spatial analysis in emergency management planning towards the smart city vision.