Determination of the Most Suitable Location of Evacuation Center for a Flood-Prone Community Using Multi-criteria Decision Analysis: The Case of Barangay Sapang Bayan, Bulacan, Philippines

Damage brought about by natural calamities is often hard to anticipate because of its sudden and unexpected timing. There have been modern approaches such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that are now being explored to store, communicate, and display spatial data. Since engineering decisions often involve multiple factors to consider, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method implies value judgment to come up with the best recommendations as solutions. Because of the unpredictability of natural calamities such as flooding and the extent of damage that they may bring, disaster risk management and planning have become important for communities across the world. This paper aimed to determine the most suitable location for an evacuation center for Barangay Sapang Bayan in Calumpit, Bulacan using GIS and AHP. The criteria that were considered and given weights were flood hazard parameters, flood risk parameters, and accessibility parameters. The weights that were used in overlaying the maps were generated using normalized values after the pair-wise comparison of each parameter. The results produced a suitability map showing that 8.98% of the study area is the most suitable locations for an evacuation center which can be found in places with far distances from the adjacent river and in areas of high elevation. Moreover, 25.86% of the total study area are suitable areas or can be considered evacuation center locations, and the rest of the barangay, 65.14%, was found to be the least to non-suitable locations. The findings of this study could aid planners and officials in imposing mitigation measures and guide them in improving their disaster response in times of calamities.