Project 4 — Emergency Response Optimization¶

Goal¶

"What % of [your city]'s population can a fire or EMS unit reach within 4 minutes? Where would a new station have the biggest impact?"

NFPA 1710 (the US fire-service standard) calls for first-arrival within 4 minutes. This project measures whether your city meets it — and identifies underserved areas.

Data needed¶

Tools used¶

• Network Analyst — Service Area (4-minute drive-time polygons)
• Network Analyst — Location-Allocation (where to put new stations)
• Spatial Join, Tabulate Intersection
• ArcGIS Online travel modes (or local network dataset)

Workflow¶

Step 1 — Set up¶

1. Project: emergency_response_<city>.
2. Project to State Plane.
3. Sign in to ArcGIS Online to use travel modes (or build a local network).

Step 2 — Service areas (current coverage)¶

1. Analysis ribbon → Network Analysis → Service Area.
2. Travel mode: Driving Time.
3. Cutoffs: 4 min (and add 6, 8 for context).
4. Add facilities: your fire stations.
5. Run.

The output is a polygon per facility per cutoff. Dissolve all 4-min polygons into one "Within 4 minutes" coverage area.

Step 3 — Population coverage¶

1. Add block-group population layer.
2. Tabulate Intersection (Analysis Tools): zone = the 4-min polygon, class = blocks, sum field = POP.
3. Output: total population inside the 4-min coverage.
4. Compute % covered: (pop_inside / pop_total) * 100.

Or use Spatial Join with Sum aggregation to get a similar result.

Step 4 — Identify gaps¶

1. Erase the 4-min polygon from the city boundary → uncovered area.
2. Spatial Join uncovered area with blocks → population in gaps.
3. Symbolize uncovered tracts dark red. These are your priority gap areas.

Step 5 — Where to add a new station? (Location-Allocation)¶

1. Generate candidate sites — e.g., a hex grid of 1 km cells in the uncovered area.
2. Network Analysis → Location-Allocation.
3. Demand points: block-group centroids weighted by population.
4. Facilities: existing stations (Required) + candidate sites (Choose).
5. Problem type: Maximize Coverage.
6. Impedance cutoff: 4 minutes.
7. Number of facilities: Existing + 1 (or +2).
8. Run.

The chosen candidate(s) are the recommended new stations.

Step 6 — Symbolize¶

A two-frame layout:

• Map A — Current coverage: existing stations + 4-min polygon + uncovered population in red.
• Map B — Proposed coverage: existing stations + recommended new station + new combined 4-min polygon.

Show the uplift: "New station adds X,000 residents to 4-min coverage."

Step 7 — Layout / dashboard¶

A polished layout with:

• Title: "Fire Service Coverage and Optimization, [City], 2026"
• Two map panels (current vs proposed)
• KPI line: % covered before / after
• Methodology footer

Build an ArcGIS Online Dashboard version with toggle between scenarios.

Skills learned¶

• Network Analyst — Service Area, Location-Allocation
• Population coverage analysis
• Decision support / optimization
• Multi-scenario comparison

Portfolio value¶

This is the municipal favorite. Cities, counties, and consulting firms hiring for public safety GIS love this project — it directly mirrors a real procurement deliverable.

Stretch goals¶

• Use time-of-day traffic (rush hour vs off-peak service areas).
• Include incident data to weight demand by call volume, not population.
• Run scenarios with 1, 2, 3 new stations to find the marginal return.
• Build a Story Map showing the methodology and result.

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