In order to develop better strategies and tactics to deal with these
challenges, the Chair of Management, Operation Research and Accounting
in Bochum headed by Prof Dr Brigitte Werners (fig. 1) has been
collaborating with the fire brigade. “We have been working with them for
the purpose of case-study seminars for years,” as Werners elaborates
the background. “Dr Dirk Hagebölling, head of Bochum’s fire brigade, is
very open-minded when it comes to new developments.” When the plan was
hatched to use scientific research for designing an IT-based
optimisation tool for emergency response planning, it exceeded the
capacity of a student project: the institute got the “Stiftung Zukunft
NRW” on board for its undertaking and was granted financial support for
two years. Four members of staff were looking into the complex questions
surrounding Bochum’s emergency response services.
“Essentially, it’s all about how many emergency vehicles have to be
placed where at what time to meet the legal requirements as well as
possible,” explains Prof Werners. In order to compile the relevant
information, the project team used existing data of emergency responses
in the city. They found out that the peak time for emergency responses
is between 10am and 2pm. At night, far fewer emergency calls come in.
Emergency call figures vary on different days of the week, too. They are
much more frequent on weekends and on Wednesdays than on any other day
of the week. Researchers expect that this phenomenon can be explained by
the office hours of doctor’s surgeries. More emergency responses take
place in the city centre than in the outskirts or in industrial estates.
The time it takes an emergency vehicle to get to an injured or ill
person very much depends on how fast it can go. Its speed, in turn, is
determined by current traffic conditions, which vary strongly in the
course of the day. Before six in the morning, they make good headway;
during the day, the average travel speeds drop. All these data were fed
into the researchers’ analysis, as well as the current and possible
locations of emergency vehicles and information regarding the overall
conditions in the city. In order to render the latter manageable, the
researchers used the zoning plan of the entire urban area, which is
subdivided into 1 x 1 km grid squares. The data analysis has shown that
the inner city of Bochum is currently very well covered, excessively
covered even: emergency vehicles reach any location within a short
period of time; simultaneous emergency responses do not pose any
difficulty, either. This is not the case in some of the outskirts,
however (fig. 2).
“A crucial factor in the optimisation of emergency response services is the positioning of emergency vehicles,” explains Brigitte Werners. At certain times, it may make sense to position the emergency vehicles at so-called flexible stations, rather than at one of the three headquarters. “Flexible stations could be, for example, offices of the volunteer fire brigade, as well as hospitals and other municipal facilities, such as schools,” says Prof Werners. “When choosing a location, it’s important that it provides the necessary conditions for the emergency response team to disinfect the emergency vehicle after a rescue operation and that there are staffrooms and sanitary facilities.”
Using complex algorithms, the optimisation tool SPR2 (Strategic Planning of Resources for Emergency Medical Services) uses the input data to calculate the optimal locations for emergency vehicles in order to provide best possible coverage for the entire urban area, measured by the reachability rate. Specific local features, such as locations of headquarters, must be considered. The result is a detailed map outlining recommended potential locations for the emergency vehicles (fig. 2).
The tool is made up of several units and features a component which the respective planner can use to examine certain situations or changes in more detail. “Through simulation, we perform a countercheck of sorts on the optimisation,” describes Prof Werners. “It is also useful for monitoring the effects of certain changes, for example the relocation of a recommended flexible station to a different location, which may perhaps seem more appropriate for some reason.” (fig. 3)
Bochum’s fire brigade is now considering if and to what extent the changes recommended by the optimisation tool can be implemented across the city. “An undertaking like this naturally takes some time. We can integrate many factors into our tool, but not all of them,” says Prof Werners. “For example, we can’t include any internal aspects, such as specific additional duties of the employees.” Today, she travels a lot to present the tool in other cities across NRW as well. It meets with considerable interest: several NRW cities have forwarded their data from the recent years to the researchers in Bochum, in order to have their processes optimised, too. “It will take some time to complete the task,” presumes Brigitte Werners. “This is because, in order to make the data compatible with our system, we have to process them first. In addition, we have to clean them up if we find any errors, i.e. data which are just not plausible.”
In order to enable users to apply the system independently, additional programming has still to be conducted, for the purpose of which interested parties have to come together to finance the undertaking. “As scientists, this is not something we can do ourselves; our task is a different one,” explains the researcher. Her enthusiasm for the project is unabated: “The methods deployed in mandatory emergency services requirements planning are governed by specific rules”, she explains. “If it turns out that the new methods are better, it could result in these rules being changed – but that’s a long way away.”
“A crucial factor in the optimisation of emergency response services is the positioning of emergency vehicles,” explains Brigitte Werners. At certain times, it may make sense to position the emergency vehicles at so-called flexible stations, rather than at one of the three headquarters. “Flexible stations could be, for example, offices of the volunteer fire brigade, as well as hospitals and other municipal facilities, such as schools,” says Prof Werners. “When choosing a location, it’s important that it provides the necessary conditions for the emergency response team to disinfect the emergency vehicle after a rescue operation and that there are staffrooms and sanitary facilities.”
Using complex algorithms, the optimisation tool SPR2 (Strategic Planning of Resources for Emergency Medical Services) uses the input data to calculate the optimal locations for emergency vehicles in order to provide best possible coverage for the entire urban area, measured by the reachability rate. Specific local features, such as locations of headquarters, must be considered. The result is a detailed map outlining recommended potential locations for the emergency vehicles (fig. 2).
The tool is made up of several units and features a component which the respective planner can use to examine certain situations or changes in more detail. “Through simulation, we perform a countercheck of sorts on the optimisation,” describes Prof Werners. “It is also useful for monitoring the effects of certain changes, for example the relocation of a recommended flexible station to a different location, which may perhaps seem more appropriate for some reason.” (fig. 3)
Bochum’s fire brigade is now considering if and to what extent the changes recommended by the optimisation tool can be implemented across the city. “An undertaking like this naturally takes some time. We can integrate many factors into our tool, but not all of them,” says Prof Werners. “For example, we can’t include any internal aspects, such as specific additional duties of the employees.” Today, she travels a lot to present the tool in other cities across NRW as well. It meets with considerable interest: several NRW cities have forwarded their data from the recent years to the researchers in Bochum, in order to have their processes optimised, too. “It will take some time to complete the task,” presumes Brigitte Werners. “This is because, in order to make the data compatible with our system, we have to process them first. In addition, we have to clean them up if we find any errors, i.e. data which are just not plausible.”
In order to enable users to apply the system independently, additional programming has still to be conducted, for the purpose of which interested parties have to come together to finance the undertaking. “As scientists, this is not something we can do ourselves; our task is a different one,” explains the researcher. Her enthusiasm for the project is unabated: “The methods deployed in mandatory emergency services requirements planning are governed by specific rules”, she explains. “If it turns out that the new methods are better, it could result in these rules being changed – but that’s a long way away.”