Spatial Analysis of Gas Refill Stations in Owerri Metropolis Using Geographic Information System (GIS)

This study analyzed the location of gas stations in Owerri metropolis against the physical planning standards set by Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR) and Owerri capital city development authority (OCDA). Name and street addresses of the gas station were obtained from the Department of Petroleum resource (DPR) Owerri. Global position system Garmin 76X GPS was used to the capture the locations of gas stations. Quickbird Imagery, street map, and boundary map was obtained from Imo State Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning and then imported to ArcMap environment of ArchGIS 10, integrated and georeferenced to the same coordinate system. The findings revealed that there are 27 gas stations located along 13 roads of the study area. There is a significant correlation between the number of gas station and the road hierarchy. The major roads like Port Harcourt road, Onitsha road, Aba road, Egbu road, Orlu road and MCC has the highest number of gas stations in the. The overall pattern of location of gas stations in the area is clustered and there is a significant difference between the pattern and random pattern at both 95 and 99% level of significance. Most gas stations satisfied the minimum 15m requirement distance from road (81%). Equally 95% of gas station met the minimum distance of 100 meter from the health care facilities. However many station had not meet the criteria of 400 meters minimum distance to other stations were located on the same road side and were not separated by any road or street. The researcher recommended that the regulatory agencies should take appropriate action which will ensure that gas stations operator comply with the standards.