New Approach to Selecting Civil Defense Centers in Al-Riyadh City (KSA) Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and GIS

Abstract

Maintaining and enhancing the quality of civil defense services are of importance to citizens’ life in any city. During the past few decades, the expansion of settlements in Al-Riyadh City has led to a shortage in the distribution of the civil defense centers (CDCs) there. The main aim of this study is to implement the Weighted Sum Method (WSM) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate the distribution of the CDCs in Al-Riyadh City. Eight criteria (i.e., distance from the existing civil defense center, accident density, population density, distance from the road, distance from commercial centers, distance from educational services, distance from industrial areas, and distance from residential areas) were used. The areas under the curve (AUC) of the Prediction Rate Curve (PRC) show that almost all of the AHP models are better than the WSM model. We suggest establishing five CDCs in Al-Riyadh City in areas that are lacking CDCs and characterized by a high population density and consequently a high rate of accidents. We recommend highly long-term planning for establishing new CDCs in cities where there is rapid areal expansion (e.g., Al-Riyadh City).