Geospatial Analysis of Fire Station Accessibility to Markets for Disaster Management in Akure South, Nigeria.

Access to a fire station is crucial for the effectiveness of emergency responses and public safety in urban areas. This study investigates fire station distribution patterns and their proximity to commercial market centers in Akure South Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria. Kernel density estimation, Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) analysis, and Euclidean distance measurement were deployed within an ArcGIS 10.4.1 environment, supplemented by QGIS 3.28.2. The study directly supports Sustainable Development Goal 11 by examining spatial inequities in emergency response coverage. ANN analysis revealed that markets exhibit a statistically significant dispersed pattern (NNR = 1.426, p = 0.014). In contrast, fire stations are also highly dispersed (NNR = 36.022, p < 0.001). However, the extremely high NNR and z-score for fire stations are partly attributable to the very small number of facilities (n = 3), which limits the inferential scope of this statistic. Euclidean distance analysis identified an average market-to-nearest-fire-station distance of 3.7 km, with a maximum exceeding 8.7 km. Hotspot analysis identified the southern and eastern areas as areas with critical service deficits. Proposed fire station locations were evaluated using service area analysis and travel distance modeling, demonstrating substantial improvements in coverage equity and reductions in response times.  The study demonstrates that GIS can be deployed effectively to identify emergency infrastructure challenges and support evidence-based disaster management planning, thereby providing actionable recommendations to optimize fire station placement and improve disaster resilience in Akure and similar urban areas.