Methodological proposal for optimal location of emergency operation centers through multi-criteria approach

Territorial vulnerability and risk analysis play a fundamental role in urban planning and emergency management. Requirements analysis of such aspects are possible to define more and more effective risk mitigation strategies providing efficient response plans to events. Many mitigation strategies as well as many response plans have in common the purpose of minimizing response time in order to decrease the level of vulnerability of the concerning area. The response time to a perturbing event is in fact an essential parameter to define the hazard of the considered site and literature is unanimous in considering it. In this context, the article proposes a methodology for the optimization of the location on the territory of emergency operation centers (EOCs), reducing response times and mitigating in this way the vulnerability of the area. The proposed methodology is based on a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) hybrid type AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process)-Electre. This method has been applied in the territory of Bressanone and Vipiteno (Bolzano-Italy), simulating the need to build a new barrack of Fire Department. A campaign of interviews with operators and industry experts and the collection of spatial data from the portals of the concerned authorities has been carried out in order to get the number of necessary data for the implementation of the proposed methodology.