Locating Hospitals Using Weighted Linear Combination Model in GIS Environment in Ardabil City

The situation of hospitals relative to other urban land uses especially roads network and population density has an important role on physical and mental health of urban dwellers. This research, attempts to provide geographical evaluation of present hospitals and determine the best locations for these hospitals in the city. Methodology of the research is descriptive-analytical. At first geographical location of present hospitals and then the areas that need hospitals (based on the criteria exist for locating hospitals) were determined using Weighted Linear Combination model of ARCGIS software. Due to high number of criteria involved in finding optimal location for hospitals, in present paper combination of the GIS capabilities and WLC model were tested to provide suitable positioning model for these hospitals. Results show that location of hospitals in Ardabil city does not follow a logic and scientific process. Concentration of these environments in south west and the city centre has caused various problems in these areas and has resulted in the lack of hospital land use in other parts of the city. General conclusion expresses that in the case of hospital construction Danesh Abad, Karshnasan, Islam Abad, and Golestan neighborhoods have the first priority. The second priority areas are Yousef Abad, Salman abad, Javadiye, Abbasiye and Zainabiye. The last priorities are Shahid Rajaee and Sayed Abad areas. The areas having priority in the output of WLC model showed that these areas have preferred conditions based on the given criteria. This fact demonstrates the capabilities of these techniques and tools on playing roles as a decision support system (DSS) for selection of the appropriate options.