A Home for the Firehouse: A town planner's perspective

Introduction

Where is the best place to locate a new fire station?

A common task for town planning offices is to help determine the best location for public service facilities such as fire stations. Several criteria need to be considered when looking for the best site for a fire station. First off, planners must identify available land. The land must be an appropriate size, and it must be buildable—for example, free of waterways, or wetlands. The site must be on or near major roads, to allow for quick access to the entire service area, which must not overlap the service areas of existing fire stations.

This exercise uses spatial analysis software and publicly available geographic data to identify potential sites for a new fire station. Along the way, you will learn the process involved in performing a site suitability analysis—not just for a fire station, but for any new facility location task.

Location

Town of Hudson, Massachusetts

Time to complete the lab

Two hours

Prerequisites

Cursory familiarity with ArcGIS software

Data used in this lab

Parcels, roads, wetlands, fire stations, town-owned parcel list

Geographic coordinate system: NAD 1983

Datum: NAD 1983

Projected coordinate system: Massachusetts Mainland State Plane (meters)