2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

A Study on School Location Suitability Using AHP in GIS Approach

Abd. Manan Samad*1, Nurhanim Ahmad Hifni*1, Rosmadi Ghazali*1 Khairil Afendy Hashim#2, Norshafinaz Mohd Disa*1 and Sazali Mahmud#2
Pixelgrammetry & Al-Idrisi Research Group (Pi_ALiRG) Centre of Studies Surveying Science and Geomatics Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying
*1

Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, Shah Alam, Selangor #2 Universiti Teknologi MARA, Arau, PERLIS Email: dr_abdmanansamad@ieee.org

Abstract - The National Education System at school level under the government education institution category consists of preschool, primary, secondary and post-secondary education. Ministry of education has many departments and division with a lot of aim, objective and task to produce Malaysian citizens who will be knowledgeable and competent, possess high moral standards, responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal well-being for harmony and betterment of the family, the society and nation contribution. This research is focus on i). The suitability study of existing school distribution/location and ii). The determination of new school location at Negeri Perlis Indera Kayangan. Perhap with the increments number of population nowadays, this is the right time for a school suitability location determination study in order to determine i). The Most Suitable, ii). Suitable and iiii). Less Suitable location for existing and new school in Negeri Perlis Indera Kayangan. The use of AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) in GIS approach was implemented and the results show that the most, suitable and less suitable has been successfully presented for Perlis State. Keyword: Location suitability, school location determination, AHP (Analytical Hierarcy Process), GIS.

Beside allotment, new school development is depending on new developed area which fully facility, infrastructure and crowded people. It is an important subject to construct new school in order to meet new students demand. Beside school location determination, this division also manages the teacher settlement to fulfil state needed option and the number of teacher. School division was executed the principle and manage the teacher matter according to their needing, settlement, movement and professionalism improvement aspect. This division also cooperated with State of Education Department, Division of Teacher Education and Institutions of higher education. In order to achieve the target, one of the divisions known as Educational Planning and Policy Research School cooperated with School Division launched Education Management Information System (EMIS) or SMPP on 1997.

The function of EMIS (Educational Management System) is for consolidation system by combination of information from many stages and activity in educational organization into one system [9]. EMIS supply all information and quality data accurately for educational managing, policy planner, I. INTRODUCTION researcher and other users systematically. EMIS is a system content of computer processing whish provide useful, The school division which performed under School complete and on time information. This information is Department, Ministry of Education has responsibility in important to support decision making process in giving simple preparation of guideline and criteria for schools existing to and relevant answer. EMIS is also for information analysis for achieve 2020 vision and determination of new schools result organizing such as "what will happen if?" which gets establishment at new developed area consistent with the information from data teacher or outside information [9]. development needed. Nowadays, school location This system can trace the number of teacher needed, new determination is incriminate of school managing, District of school and infrastructure aspect. All the process of teacher Education Office (PPD), State of Education Department (JPN) settlement manually stored and managed by data and Ministry of Education itself. There are many stages, factor, computerized with system analysis. guideline and criteria to be taken for new school development. Schools which has crowded pupil for each class will report to There are two outlines that prepared by department of PPD by school management and follow up meeting at PPD town and country planning in order to develop a school as one stages will execute [4]. Then, meeting at JPN stages will go of educational facilities. The first one is site planning outlines. on before allotment confirmation by Ministry. Ministry has The preparation is follow by hierarchy which is based on own allotment throughout the year for school development populations, locations, areas and existing of minimum and other infrastructure for educational system in Malaysia. facilities [3]. There is one unit of primary schools for one unit

978-1-4673-0961-5/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

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2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

of neighbourhood (3000 7500 population) and one unit of secondary schools for each two or three unit of neighbourhood. The optimum distances of primary school between housing areas is 0.4km-0.km (1/4 miles) and for secondary schools is 0.8km-1.6 km (1/2-1 miles) (Figure 1). The proposed site for educational facilities is not suitable in swamp, hill, flooding area or landslide risk. The site must far from industrial area and have sufficient separator from land use which is not suitable like highway. Besides that, the site must not locate along or near main road for avoiding traffic jam and for children safety. Near infrastructure and public facilities such a public bus and not in a risk area which incriminates of none bustle road/path is another of the criteria for developing a new school. The site must also have good physical criteria such as good drainage system, so that a play ground is functional for children.

had been identified during this study. All the actors are important. The relative importance of each is determined by the local conditions in each district and the value judgments of those involved in making decisions regarding site selection. According to [13], the rating sheet was used as a further extended of ideas stimulated. The rating sheets include both subjective and objectives factors. Subjective factors relate to educational consideration and objective factors relate primarily to estimated cost in the Schneider method. Rating sheets probably find their greatest value as guides for an orderly analysis of sites, and as means for making rough comparisons of one sites with another. That rating sheets afford an opportunity to quickly identify the most critical factors regarding each site. An algorithm for school site selection requires a rating sheet to grade criteria important in the preliminary site selection process and a more extensive rating sheet to grade the suitability of specific sites [12]. The former assesses land availability, size, shape, ownership, and cost. The latter assesses and assigns weights to such criteria as location, accessibility, topography, utilities, public services and other criteria. Many of the selection criteria had been converted from checklist form to a format usable by a GIS. Once weights were assigned, these sites could be mapped indicating their relative suitability. There are three environmental constraints that had been considered for locating potential school sites. There are floodplains, water resources protection areas and steep slopes. The based data that used is state boundary, school district boundaries, roads, hydrology and town boundaries. The analysis data that taken into consideration are current school sites, property parcel boundaries, land use, sewer sheds, environmental constraint, digital orthophotography and surrogate student locations. This study showed that a Geographic Information System holds great potential for use as a tool in school site suitability analysis. With additional brainstorming and further refinement of the model, administrators, working in conjunction with school planners knowledgeable in GIS techniques, could create a model that would prove beneficial in school site planning. In another application of GIS to the school mapping is executed in Bangkok [10]. The application was demonstrated how important to integrate all the data together and apply GIS to analyze the school mapping smoothly and effectively. In Bangkok, school planning has never been implemented in cooperation with all the related agencies. School databases are scattered all over the agencies, and those are not integrated into digital format together. The application focuses mainly on public primary and lower secondary schools. The research indicates the problems of current existing schools in Bangkok and future problems in accordance with the government policy, which from 2002 September, the compulsory education will become nine years from the current six years. So, it is an urgent subject to construct school buildings in order to meet new students demand. There are many Buddhist temples in Bangkok commonly called Wat, situated, especially along the Chaopraya River densely. These temples estates properties are utilized for providing schoolhouses and nearly 90 percent of national population believes in Buddhism in Thailand. Buddhism has fundamentally affected the Thai education for a long time. Until today, the social custom that students learn in the temple

Fig 1: Diagram of location and distances between schools and housing area [8]

The second one is site area outlines. For primary schools, the proposed area must between 2 to 4 hectare or 5 to 10 hectare (2 hectare for flat area, 3 hectare for hill area with elevation not less than 60 m (200 feet) and the slope not less than 10 degree. For secondary schools, 3.2 to 6 hectare or 8 to 15 hectare ( 3 hectare for flat area, 4 hectare for hill area with elevation not less than 60 m(200 feet) and the slope not less than10 degree [8]. The area can be reducing in town. For design and layout, the proposed site must design with functional of safety criteria and the proposed design will produce conducive environment for teaching and learning. The contour line and earth shape which suitable with landscaping planning must be followed. The department of town and country planning also prepared a guideline for the communication system and supporting facilities. Safety communication systems for children have to follow by developer. Bus and parents transportation route must separate with main route such as special route for bus and school transit, a one way and the exit route has to be taken into consideration. The waiting station for children with lay by for buses outside the school and a sufficient parking lot is also important. A suitable, nice and easy landscaping for services must be followed in order to generate a comfortable school. Stanford University of California has showed that both educational program and cost to the district may be seriously affected when inadequate site investigation are employed for school site selection. An adequate site investigation can be undertaken with appropriate timing when all the factors affecting school site selection had been properly identified and evaluated [13]. The twenty five factors affecting school sites

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has been strongly remaining, although there are no implications of temples to schools. By using GIS for displaying, the lack of schools can clearly identify. In Thailand, only few common rules, such as not near factories, warehouses and landfills are stipulated for school planning. This loose enforcement of school planning regulations become one of the factors that triggered the random school distribution regardless of the consideration for demand as explained in the following. In this study, school location cannot analyse according to the indicators, so the demand and supply by sub-district wise was estimated. Using GIS, the distribution of schools with detail characteristics (students number, school size) and relationship between school and population density, transportation network can be clearly illustrated. This application shows that, by integrating all the school data and converting it to the digital format analyses or simulation can make easily and efficiently for future school building planning. GIS is a very useful tool to analyse the school-planning situation. Besides the simplification of educational administration, and expansion of compulsory education, enforcing the clear school planning policies, and creating the digital database that can be used in GIS, will have more positive influence on improving school services and qualities for the current and future children. The integration of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) has been widely applied and been recognized as a powerful and effective tool especially in detecting urban land use and land cover changes [2]. Remote sensing data usually forms a critical component of this process and today remotely sensed imagery is one of the fastest growing sources for raster GIS data. The merging of remote sensing data into GIS creates a synergy where the GIS makes it easier to extract information from remotely sensed data and the remotely sensed data keeps the GIS up to date with actual environmental conditions. Remote sensing data is typically used to create the original map used in a GIS. It provides the most cost effective and timely method of collecting environmental data over large areas. This is significant because the date entry required to create a GIS database is often the most expensive part of the process, up to as much as 70 percent of the total cost. Remotely sensed images imported into GIS can be either simple photographs, or images taken from satellites in different wavelengths beyond just visible light. Most satellite imagery is of the second type, and the sensors record in many different wavelengths (or "bands") at the same time, yielding multiple images of the same location on the ground. For example the sensor on Landsat 7 has seven bands in the infrared region plus one panchromatic band that covers all wavelengths [2]. Each of these bands creates an image than can be treated as a separate raster layer in GIS. There are many software programs out there designed to import and analyze these images. The images can be imported into mainstream GIS packages such as ArcInfo and IDRISI, or they can be manipulated in software specially designed to handle remote sensing imagery such as PCI, ENVI, ERDRAS, IMAGINE and ERMapper. All of these programs really are just a specialized form of raster GIS. An Integration of Geo Imagery and Vector Data into School Mapping GIS Data-Model for Educational Decision

Support System had been successful done in Jordan. The project focused on building a proper Geographic Information system (GIS) data model for school mapping planning, where all schools with attribute data would be available for problem solving and decision-making in Education [11]. The Educational Decision Support System provides user with a map of specific region with focus on the schools locations and all related info to assist decision-makers in either expanding current school or suggesting sites for new schools in Jordan, and also, for student and resources location and allocation. School mapping used a relational databases such educational, demographic, social and economic information for schools and educational directorates to support educational planners and decision makers. A comprehensive database of all schools, pupils, teachers and resources is important in order to do a proper planning. The GIS data model with showing school locations and other significant geographic features such as streets, railroads, city-zoning, school-directorates, sub-districts, districts, governorates, and other features provide an excellent tool for planners. IKONOS Geo imagery and more reliable small-scale vector data format integrated with the current GIS-data-model to build a detailed geospatial-database for school mapping planning purposes. Another experience on finding location was for a new high school in the Parkway School District, St. Louis County, Missouri. The study used ArcMap for finding a location for new high school which is based on certain criteria [12]. There are four criteria for finding the most suitable location that included in the study. There are slopes, population increase, school distances and land use. II. AIM AND OBJECTIVE The aim of this research study is to evaluate and propose the most suitable criteria for new school location determination by using AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) in GIS approach. The objectives of this research study are: i. ii. iii. To study the existing criteria for new school location determination. To revise and propose a new most suitable criteria for new school location determination by using AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). To developed, simulate and evaluate a proposed model of most suitable, suitable and less suitable of existing and new school location with the implementation of the established criteria by using AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) in GIS approach. III. METHODOLOGY This research study comprises the school location suitability determination at Perlis Indera Kayangan by using AHP (Analytical Hierarcy Process). Following Figure 2 is a systematic flowchart of the research methodology.

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range of the problem. A numerical weight or priority is derived for each element of the hierarchy, allowing diverse and often incommensurable elements to be compared to one another in a rational and consistent way. This capability distinguishes the AHP from other decision making techniques. Figure 3 shows the AHP in GIS for criteria and data model establishment.

Fig 3: AHP in GIS for criteria and data model establishment.

IV. RESULTS For this study, score for each GIS layer are depended on four parameters. Table 1 and Figure 4 show the first parameter score, demographic (density) theme of population with the age of below 19 years old.
TABLE 1: Score for the demographic (density) theme of population

Fig 2: Flowchart of research methodology

For the modelling, there are four main parameter were chosen. First parameter is the density population on the higher population with age of below 19 years old. Secondly is the topographic parameter which must have less slope risk. Thirdly is the river network due to make sure that the suitable location must further away from river to minimize the flood risk. Fourthly is the road network as to make maximize accessibility to the suitable school location. As for the GIS layers, there are six layers were created. First layer is the statistical demographic layer containing the density of the population information. Second layer is the topographic layer containing the earth surface contours for slope information. Third layer is the river buffer. This layer is important due to minimize the aspect of prone to the flooding risk. Fourth layer is the road network, followed by lot parcel from cadastre for the fifth layer, and existing schools location as the sixth GIS layer. AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) is a structured technique for dealing with complex decisions to be made. Rather than prescribing a correct decision, the AHP is capable to help the decision makers to find the one that best suits their needs and their understanding of the problem. AHP is based on mathematics and psychology. It was developed by Thomas L. Saaty in the 1970s and has been extensively studied and refined since then. The AHP provides a comprehensive and rational framework for structuring a decision problem, for representing and quantifying its elements, for relating those elements to overall goals, and for evaluating alternative solutions. The AHP converts these evaluations to numerical values that can be processed and compared over the entire

Demographic density is the total population divided by total area. The highest score shows more population below age of 19 within a region.

Fig 4: Score for the demographic (density) theme of population represented in GIS map layer.

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Table 2 and Figure 5 show the second parameter score, the road theme for accessing to the school location.
TABLE 2: Score for the road theme

Table 4 and Figure 7 show the slope theme score for topographic suitability. The highest score representing the area with less slope of topography.
TABLE 4: Score for the slope theme

Fig 5: Score for the road theme, accessing to school location, represented in GIS map layer. Fig 7: Score for the slope theme (topography) represented in GIS map layer.

Table 3 and Figure 6 show the river buffer theme score for flooding prone risk as the third parameter considered.
TABLE 3: Score for the river buffer theme that prone to flood risk

By using the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), weighting score for every each criterion is derived by directly comparing the importance of one criterion to another criterion. Table 5 show the preference factors as compared with other factor. Table 6 show the factors comparison for school suitability location determination in Negeri Perlis Indera Kayangan. Finally table 7 shows that the AHP outcome, resulting in producing the weight values for density population, slope (topography), river network and lastly the road network.
TABLE 5: AHP Preference Factor

TABLE 6: AHP Factors Comparison for School Suitability Location Determination.

Fig 6: Score for the river buffer theme that prone to flood risk represented in GIS map layer

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2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications
TABLE 7: AHP Final Outcome (Weight Values)

Based on the numerical value level, from as low as 1.91106 to the highest 8.24135 of the weighting values produced by AHP and processed in GIS approach, the school location suitability map has been produced (Figure 8).
Fig 10: School Location Suitability Map (Overlay on Cadaster Lot Parcel with more than 5 hectares only to be selected)

When the school location suitability map is overlayed onto the cadaster lot parcel data and 5 hectares is chosen as minimum requirement area for the determination of new suitable school map, a map as shown in Figure 10 has been produced. An overlaying to another data such as existing school location distribution map has produced another new suitable school location map (Figure 11).

Fig 8: School Location Suitability Map (Based on numerical weighting value) for Negeri Perlis Indera Kayangan

Based on the three (3) thematic level of school location suitability, that are less suitable, suitable and most suitable, a school location map has been produced (Figure 9) in GIS approach by using AHP.

Fig 11: School Location Suitability Map (Overlay onto the existing school location distribution)

The final result of the study on school location suitability by using AHP in GIS approach is shown in table 8.
TABLE 8: Suitable school location in Negeri Perlis Indera Kayangan (Existing and Future Location).

V. CONCLUSION For the conclusion, there are three (3) rank of thematic level for the suitability has been produced. For the existing school, it is verified that the most suitable school location are SK Stella Maris, SK Sena and SM Syed Sirajuddin. For the category of suitable are SK Padang Kota, SK Santan and SK Guar Nangka. For the less suitable school location are SK
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Fig 9: School Location Suitability Map (Based on 3 thematic levels) for Negeri Perlis Indera Kayangan.

2012 IEEE 8th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

Padang Melangit, SK Jelempuk, SK Changkat Jawi and SK Panggas. For the future suitable school location (based on Cadaster lot number and minimum 5 hectares in area), there are 4 most suitable lot, that are Lot 2702 (Mukim Sena), Lot 1742 (Mukim Kechor), Lot 5218 (Mukim Sanglang) and Lot 2517 (Mukim Chuping). Lot 2345 (Mukim Sena), Lot 977 (Mukim Seriab) and Lot 1343 (Mukim Arau) are the 3 in less suitable location due to population density, topographic, river and road network accessibility. It is found that the use of AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) in GIS approach for school location suitability determination has successfully achieved ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Pixelgrammetry and Al-Idrisi Research Group (Pi_ALiRG); UiTM Research and Management Institute (RMI-UiTM); Centre of Studies Surveying Science and Geomatics, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, UiTM Shah Alam and UiTM Perlis; District of Education Office (PPD), Perlis State of Education Department (JPN) and School Department, Ministry of Education are greatly acknowledged.
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