Location Analysis of Fire Stations in Cagayan de Oro City using Minimum Impedance (P-Median Problem) and Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP) with Q-Coverage Requirement Approaches

Abstract

This study aimed to address the problem of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in determining the strategic locations of the fire stations in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines to provide a fast and timely response using the facility location problem (FLP). This study compared two FLP models, namely minimum impedance and the maximal covering location problem (MCLP) to determine the optimal number and the respective best locations of the fire stations without relocation. In addition, a set of adopted performance criteria was employed to evaluate which model fitted the problem. In the integration of the Q-coverage requirement, results identified the backup fire stations of each barangay (village) if the primary fire station is unavailable or responding to other demands. The results revealed that MCLP performed better than the minimum impedance across the average travel distances of 1.19, 3.43, and 4.44 km for Q values 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Moreover, MCLP outperformed each of the three criteria for all of the Q values. Thus, the MCLP provided an efficient application for deciding on the locations of fire stations to minimize the travel distance between demand, primary and backup fire stations, thereby fulfilling its mandate of protecting communities from destructive fires and other emergencies.