Introduction and Issues
figure 1
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Urban fires are often devastating resulting in the loss of property worth millions and the lives of many. There is a worldwide understanding of the importance of creating a database on the land (urban or rural) for the assessment and analysis of fire hazards / risks. However, in some major cities, this process is in a stalemate phase and databases are not at all existent. The Mumbai fire service is a case in point. In this congested multicultural cosmopolitan city, which is characterised by dense population, frequent traffic jams, presence of many slums, the effects of a major fire breakout will be disastrous and the consequent damage will run into heavy loss of lives and property running into millions of rupees. The Mumbai fire service adopts a crude methodology of combating fire, where a short-term methodology is followed, using the local knowledge of the staff, and a rough calculation is made for resource allocation and management. The location of fire stations has been the same from the time they were incepted, and have not considered the phenomenal exponential burst of population and the economic boom in Mumbai over the last decade. There are various regions that are not serviced by the fire stations within a reasonable response time and yet there are some regions serviced by two stations! The lack of proper database has been the bane of fire service and has gone unnoticed by the authorities and bureaucrats alike. This methodology followed by the fire service is beset with disastrous results, and very often generates remarks about the overall operational capability of the fire service department. The availability of spatial database is more acute here than anywhere else.
Two major issues need to be addressed in the case of Mumbai Fire Service:
- There is a need for building of a database that gives an understanding of the topology of the region, which could also be in the form a generalised land use map (figure no 1)
- Secondly, to map the various features (manmade and natural) in space that are directly concerned to the fire service for hazard and risk assessment, and integrate cartographic information available in unprojected maps, it is necessary to tackle disasters by comprehensively taking into account the intricate variables like population, infrastructure, topography etc. These variables are a mixture of textual and spatial features or in other words discrete like petrol pumps, buildings etc and continous features like the land cover, water bodies etc.
To create such a database in a very short time is essential since emergency situations can happen anytime without notice. This is possible by integrating variables, that are considered important for the respective emergency organisations (Chart 1). These variables are indeed a mixture of spatial and textual details. The technologies of GIS and Remote Sensing, can help in generating maps and reports, that will prove extremely desirable to support the intricate nature of operations by these emergency organisations.
Study area
Vector Overlay on Raster CBD Area Mumbai
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The port city of Mumbai is located on the western coast of India and has been the traditional trade and commerce hub of India since long time. The study area (approximately 7 square kms) is a section of the southern tip of Mumbai, that encompasses the CBD also.
Methodology
A map to the scale of 1:25,000 was to be generated en route the study of networks and generation of shortest path for the Mumbai fire service, as a mere demonstration of the efficiency of a "Geographical Information System". The emphasis was to display each and every building and street so as to create a database, which could be used by the Mumbai fire service to plan for an emergency.