Localizing Fire Stations in School Districts by Developing a New Generation of 3D Visualization Using GIS Data

Use of technology in planning and design purpose is widely known in the construction industry. In this paper, an important issue related to fire safety of schools is addressed. Fire is a potential hazard amongst all that can occur to schools and as a result, require more protective environment. This paper proposes an idea of minimizing the risk of hazardous situations. Using technology for future planning of fire station location will enable us to provide an effective response to school fire hazards in the quickest possible way. To achieve this, GIS-based virtual city model has been introduced with the implementation of data and visualization of this data as graphics. The primary step is to produce a 3D city model using GIS shapefiles. The dataset of interest is related to virtual city model and the data integration process is performed to infuse data into the model. The proposed new tool matches to the model and produces a visually characterized virtual model that displays all data integrated with the model with a great level of detail. The results represent the potential future fire station locations required near the schools, to respond to the hazardous situations very efficiently in terms of time. To achieve this, data from the prominent sources are used to analyze the current situation and presenting the possible improvements using a virtual city model of a case-study. The model helps in understanding the findings of this study and describe the vitals through the model.