Building a Stable Civil Defense System Against Fire for the Old Damascus Area Using Geographic Information Systems Technologies (GIS)

Abstract

The importance of modern Geographic Information Systems technologies (GIS) lies in their use as a highly effective analytical and technical tool for both planners and decision-makers, it is an advanced tool that can deal with information, spatial and non-spatial data, and maps, and process them with high accuracy and efficiency. This makes it a tool that allows the user to create interactive queries, analyze spatial and descriptive information, edit data, and create maps, with the ability to provide results in multiple formats for all of these procedures, and provide realistic analytical cases about the real and physical environment.

Hence, it has become relevant to almost every human endeavor, playing an important role in various fields. Civil Defense had a large share due to the capabilities of this technology in the process of linking descriptive and spatial data and producing the product in the form of maps and charts that help in decision-making. Therefore, in this research, the advantages of this technology were taken advantage of in building a stable civil defense system against fires in the old city of Damascus, due to the cultural, historical, and tourist value that this ancient city represents.