Exploring Spatiotemporal Accessibility of Urban Fire Services Using Real-Time Travel Time

Yuehong Chen, Yuyu Li, Guohao Wu, Fengyan Zhang, Kaixin Zhu, Zelong Xia and Yu Chen
Additional contact information
Yuehong Chen: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Yuyu Li: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Guohao Wu: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Fengyan Zhang: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Kaixin Zhu: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Zelong Xia: School of Urban Resource and Environment, Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing 210013, China
Yu Chen: School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: The accessibility of urban fire services is a critical indicator in evaluating fire services and optimizing fire resource allocation. However, previous studies have mainly concentrated on measuring the spatial accessibility of fire services, and little, if any, consideration has been paid to exploring the spatiotemporal dynamics of the accessibility of urban fire services. Therefore, we used real-time travel time to extend an existing spatial accessibility method to measure the spatiotemporal accessibility of fire services in a case study of Nanjing, China. The results show that (1) the overall accessibility of fire incidents and fire stations in Nanjing, China, is uneven, with relatively high accessibility in the southwest and northeast of the city center; (2) the number of fire incidents with low-level accessibility apparently increases in rush hours (i.e., 07:00–09:00 and 17:00–19:00 h) in the southeast and north of the city center, and the fire incidents with medium-level and high-level accessibility easily change to lower levels under the influence of traffic congestion, with fire incidents with medium-level accessibility being affected the most; (3) the accessibility of fire stations changes over time with an obvious W pattern, with lower accessibility during rush hours than at other times, and several fire stations in the city center present an asymmetric W pattern; (4) the accessibility decline ratio for fire stations in rush hours is greater in the city center than in urban suburbs, and the decline ratios are strongly related to the travel time increase and the percent increase in uncovered fire incidents during rush hours. The results and findings demonstrate that our method can be used to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of the accessibility of fire services, and so can guide policymakers in improving fire services.

Keywords: spatiotemporal accessibility; fire station; historical fire incidents; real-time travel time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4200/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4200/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:8:p:4200-:d:536798

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().