Optimal Hospital Location Using Combined Approach of GIS and ANP under Fuzzy Environment (Case Study in Arak City)

Health-care applications are those types of uses that, in the event of inaccurate location, may lead to irreparable loss of life in addition to the economic and financial constraints. The geographical location is the main component of access to medical services. Therefore, the importance of optimal and suitable location for this type of user should be considered. In this paper, a compilation of GIS capabilities and an ANP model in a fuzzy environment was conducted to determine the optimal locations for the establishment of a hospital in Markazi province, Arak city. For this purpose, firstly, effective and suitable criteria for locating the hospital in view of the location is the geographic and geographical conditions of Arak, hospitals, experts, books and articles were selected and then weighed in fuzzy environment. Finally, the results obtained by fuzzy GIS in fuzzy mode were used by five fuzzy operators (AND, OR, SUM, PRODUCT, GAMMA) combined in ArcGIS. According to the results obtained from five fuzzy operators, the accessibility criterion, which had the highest weight, was prioritized in order to find the optimal location for the establishment of hospital, and the locations were identified with the least distance from main road/paths for quick and easy access in the shortest time to the hospitals.