LocatingRescue and Settlement Centersin Sabzevarfrom the Perspective of Crisis Management by UsingTOPSIS and AHP-GIS

One of the important issues in crisis management is providing settlement and help to the injured. In fact, the location of rescue and help centers should be designed in such a way that after the incident, there is the best chance ofgiving response to victims. In this regard, one of the important tasks of urban planners is to identify suitable locations for evacuation and settlement centers after an accident. Sabzevarn as an important city over the past few decades and located in Khorasan Razavi province has witnessed a rapid development. According to its placement near the borders of East, it has different potentials and needs a Crisis Management Study. Therefore, the present study, in the first stage, intends to identify efficient measures to locate rescue and evacuation centers and to prioritize these indicators according to the conditions of Sabzevar. Then in the next stage, the research locates these centers in the city of Sabzevar. According to the conceptual framework, it can be concluded that the issue of location of rescue and settelment centers is in connection with the discussion of passive defense. This is also in line with actions before the event and at the municipal level (local) of crisis management.
In terms of objectives, the study is applied, and according to the nature, it is analytical-descriptive (case study). Data were collect from library resources as well as a series of reports, documents and statistics.In the literature review, domestic and international sources have been used. Furthermore, in the prioritization of criteria in Sabzevar, case study method is used.The aim of this study is to identify appropriate and efficient indicators to locate evacuation and help centers.The study also seeks to prioritize the conditions and criteria with regard to the existing conditions in Sabzevar. Thus, first, the main domestic and international literature review have been searched for concepts related to passive defense. Then appropriate indicators have been identified for the location of evacuation and rescue centers. The next step is to review the documents and maps ofSabzevar to prioritize criteria in order of importance.
After knowing the location of evacuation and rescue centers, it is necessary to prioritize these criteria and to arrange them in order of importance according to the research goal. The study revealed criteria and their priorities for the location of evacuation and rescue centers in Sabzevar by TOPSIS model. For this purpose, three variables including time of victim's arrival in evacuation centers, rescue services by officials andthe decrease of vulnerability.Finally, after the calculation with TOPSIS model, it became clear that the criterion of proximity to residential areas has the highest priority in positioning of rescue centers in the city of Sabzevar. On the one hand, due to relatively high population density in the central urban regions of Sabzevar and increase the vulnerability of these areas in the event of an accident, and on the other hand because of the importance arrival time of residents and victims in the centers, this criterion is the most important in Sabzevar. Being close to the road network in the city of Sabzevarhadthe second priority.In addition, criteria for proximity to the fire station, proximity to medical centers and distancefrom dangerous urban facilities had respectively the third and fourth priorities.
Then, the positioningof rescue centers inSabzevar was performed using analytic hierarchy process. In this study, the positioning of rescue centers was done according to previous prioritized criteria and using AHP-GIS techniques. The results showed to find the location of rescue centers was in Sabzevar, according to the criteria of having access roads,the best location is in the proximity of grade-1roads. Also according to the criteria for residential use and treatment, the best location is around the area, in which residential areas and health centers are adjacent. According to the criteria of distance from dangerous urban utility centers,the location of centers in the proximity of these dangerous infrastructures is not appropriate. Finally, all the mentioned criteria and sub criteria are analyzed uniformly and locations that were individually determined in each criterion were combined.
The results of this study showed that criteria including proximity to residential areas, closeness to health centers and fire stations, access to roads and distance from dangerous urban utility centers have the most important roles in positioning of settlement and rescue centers. Then for positioning the rescue centers by AHP-GIS method, these criteria were displayed in form of locations, and finally it was determined that the best location for establishment of rescue centers is north, northwest, south and west of Sabzevar, which respectively include Taleghani St, Dr. ShariatiSq, Imam Reza St and Imam Khomeini St.