Modelling residential fire incident response times: A spatial analytic approach

Kc, Kiran; Corcoran, Jonathan

doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.03.004

Cited by 37 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Emergency access might warrant a wider street than access for humans and deliveries alone, and the Uniform Fire Code recommends a minimum clear path of 20 ft (Snyder et al, 2013). However, street width is just one of many factors that affect fire response times, with street connectivity being just as important (KC & Corcoran, 2017). Moreover, fire departments often adapt their equipment to match the prevailing local geography (Snyder et al, 2013).…”

Section: Access Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

The Width and Value of Residential Streets

Millard‐Ball¹

2021

Journal of the American Planning Association

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Problem, research strategy, and findings: The width of street rights-of-way is normally determined by traffic engineering and urban design conventions, without considering the immense value of the underlying land. In this article, I develop an economic framework that can inform decisions on street width, and I use tax parcel data to quantify the widths, land areas, and land value of streets in 20 of the largest counties in the United States. Residential street rights-of-way in the urbanized portion of these counties average 55 ft wide, far greater than the functional minimum of 16 ft required for access. The land value of residential streets totals $959 billion in the urbanized portion of the 20-county sample. In most counties, subdivision regulations are binding. That is, few developers choose to build streets that are wider than code requirements, implying that softening requirements would mean more land devoted to housing and less to streets. Although I highlight the potential for narrower street rights-of-way, I did not consider detailed design issues. Nor did I analyze how any windfall from reduced land requirements would be divided among landowners, developers, and house purchasers.Takeaway for practice: Particularly in places with high land values and housing costs, reallocating street rights-of-way to housing would increase economic efficiency. In the most expensive county in the data set-Santa Clara (CA)-narrowing the right-of-way to 16 ft would save more than $100,000 per housing unit through reduced land consumption. Where streets have little or no function for through traffic, the costs and benefits accrue almost exclusively to neighborhood residents. Thus, planners could reduce or even eliminate street width requirements in subdivision ordinances, leaving developers to make the trade-off between land for streets and land for housing.

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Section: Access Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

The Width and Value of Residential Streets

Millard‐Ball¹

2021

Journal of the American Planning Association

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“…Brisbane accounted for 12.5 per cent of the total population growth in the State over the period of six years to 2011 with in‐migration and immigration being the major drivers (McGuirk & Argent, ). Now covering 5,950 km 2 , the Brisbane Statistical Division (BSD) continues to experience strong growth in both physical infrastructure and population (KC & Corcoran, ; Krockenberger, ). With population growth in the BSD, the need for and costs to maintain efficient response to emergency calls are also rising (Chhetri et al ., ; KC & Corcoran, ).…”

Section: Analytic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Now covering 5,950 km 2 , the Brisbane Statistical Division (BSD) continues to experience strong growth in both physical infrastructure and population (KC & Corcoran, ; Krockenberger, ). With population growth in the BSD, the need for and costs to maintain efficient response to emergency calls are also rising (Chhetri et al ., ; KC & Corcoran, ). Currently, the BSD is served by 49 fire stations staffed by permanently employed officers and members.…”

Section: Analytic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial optimisation of fire service coverage: a case study of Brisbane, Australia

Corcoran

Chhetri

2018

Geographical Research

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In the context of changing demand for fire services, spatial optimisation of fire coverage has attracted little scholarly attention despite its potential to improve emergency response and to inform future service planning for fire stations. Drawing on small area population forecasts, this paper extends the application of the Maximum Coverage Location Model to compute and delineate the spatial coverage of current and proposed new fire stations to align with population growth estimates for Brisbane, Australia. Our results reveal important gaps in fire cover that are likely to emerge as a result of predicted population growth, the spatial patterns of which varies across the Brisbane metropolitan area. We draw on these results to delineate a series of new potential sites for fire stations to ameliorate the reduction in spatial coverage as a consequence of predicted population growth demonstrating the utility of our analytic approach for decision‐making and operational planning in the fire services.

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“…For these reasons, a significant amount of public resources are allocated to emergency services agencies to enhance service quality and operational efficiency (Murray 2013). Nonetheless, timely response to calls for emergency services continues to challenge fire agencies, especially in responding to rapidly growing metropolitan areas experiencing significant population growth and restructuring in urban form (Productivity Commission 2015;KC et al 2015;KC & Corcoran 2017). The optimal distribution of fire stations that aligns with the changing demand for services is a vital operational tool to maintain timely response with minimum resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring the spatial accessibility to fire stations using enhanced floating catchment method

Corcoran

Chhetri

2020

Socio-Economic Planning Sciences

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Enhancing the spatial accessibility of population to fire services is a key strategy to help improve emergency response, minimise property loss, and reduce injuries and deaths. Given its significance for fire service policy and strategic planning, we draw on small area population forecasts, fire station locations and the road network, and employ the enhanced two-step floating catchment method to compute the levels of spatial accessibility of population to fire services in relation to current and future population growth in Brisbane, Australia. Results show that lower levels of spatial accessibility to fire services exist in the most populated areas compared to those that are least populated. Further, we reveal that some areas are more likely to suffer a reduction in spatial accessibility than others. Spatial accessibility of population to fire services over the period to 2036 is likely to reduce as a consequence of rising demand for service. The identification of locales that experience lower levels of accessibility to fire services will enable fire services agencies to strategically plan infrastructure investment and help enhance the operational efficiency of emergency response.

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Modelling residential fire incident response times: A spatial analytic approach

Cited by 37 publications

References 40 publications

The Width and Value of Residential Streets

The Width and Value of Residential Streets

Spatial optimisation of fire service coverage: a case study of Brisbane, Australia

Measuring the spatial accessibility to fire stations using enhanced floating catchment method

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