Ateneo de Davao University

School of Engineering and Architecture

1st Semester, A.Y. 2020-2021

Thesis Proposal: Road Accident GIS Map for

Emergency Responders

Submitted by:
Cansancio, Erick Adrian P.

Submitted to:
Engr. Jenith Banluta
Engr. Aireen Fordaliza
Engr. Nathaniel Duro
Engr. Ryutaro Yamamoto
 Chapter I

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Road vehicles are commonly the means of moving from one point to another in

urban and rural places. With the popularity of cars, motors, and buses as a means of

transportation, it unfortunately has exposed more commuters to road accidents. A road

accident involves at least one road vehicle, occurring on any road open to public

circulation, in which one or more persons are injured or killed. Using a road vehicle for

intentionally malicious acts such as murder or suicide do not count as road accidents

[1]. Road accidents have several types, and are classified as vehicle rollovers, single

car accidents, head-on collisions, rear-end collisions, or side-impact accidents [2].

The causes of road accidents, documented throughout the world, have varied

from excessive speeding, to driving while intoxicated, and also driving while using

mobile phones. Other factors in road accidents are the unsafe road facilities and lack

of traffic law enforcement. These specifically are unsafe roads & vehicles, inadequate

care for crash victims, and insufficient traffic law enforcement [2].

The drivers and victims involved in these accidents can vary based on their age

or gender. With age, teenagers to the elderly are common casualties in these

accidents, either due to inexperience and distractions from other forms of technology

from teenagers or due to a lack of alertness and reaction time from the elderly [2]. With

gender, males are at greater risk in car crashes than females. 73% of all recorded
road accident deaths occur among men below 25 years old and are 3 times more likely

to be killed in a road traffic crash as women [3].

The common people, traffic planners, and government agents have taken proper

actions to combat road traffic accidents. These comprehensive traffic plans involve

different sectors, such as transport, police, health, and education. Effective ways to

combat these accidents included designing safer infrastructure, creating better safety

features in vehicles, improving care for victims of road crashes, strictly enforcing laws

on road safety, and raising public awareness. Despite these countermeasures, road

accidents are still rampant throughout the world, with staggering and tragic losses [3].

The World Health Organization reports that with every passing year, around 1.35

million deaths are caused in the world due to road accidents. Another 20 to 50 million

more people involved in these accidents suffer non-fatal injuries, with many likely

receiving a permanent disability due to their accident. These damages, deaths, and

injuries cause considerable financial worries to the people involved, their families, and

their nations as a whole, costing them 3% of their gross domestic product (GDP). Low

socioeconomic status is a factor in these accidents, with over 90% of car accident

deaths occurring in countries with low and middling income, with its highest death &

injury rates in the African region. Still, high-income countries are not immune to this as

people living in these countries with lower socioeconomic standing have greater

chances to be involved in road accidents [3].

The Philippines is especially troubled by these car crashes as it ranks 118 th in

the number of death rates in road accidents [4]. The annual crash report of the

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) shows that 121,771 road

accidents in 2019 increased by 4.16% from the year prior. In the previous year, 2018,

there were 116,906 road accidents, a 6.25% increase from 2017. Also, from the
reports, an average of 334 car accidents happened in a day, resulting in 1 fatality, 56

non-fatal incidents, and 276 cases of property damages. Meanwhile, there were

20,466 non-fatal accidents and 100,933 road mishaps that caused severe property

damage. The vehicles that were involved in the most road accidents in the previous

year were cars and motorcycles, accounting for 118,552 and 35,006 accidents for cars

and motors, respectively. Despite the disparity, motorcycle-related deaths were more

significant in number with 234 fatalities [5].

Davao City is no better than the rest of the country. The Davao City Transport

and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO), responsible for monitoring and

implementing traffic plans in Davao City, reported 13,709 vehicular accidents from

January to November 2018. In their report, private vehicles such as the Sedan and

Sport Utility Vehicles had the highest number of vehicular accidents recorded with

4,107. With truck accidents, there were 2,231, while 1,644 accidents involved

motorcycles. There were 804 public utility jeepney vehicular accidents and 959 for

taxis. Finally, a total of 940 pedestrians were hit by runaway cars, though their statuses

were unmentioned [6].

The increasing number and cause of road accidents motivated this study to

analyze various road accidents in Davao City, and the need to understand the details

of these accidents by knowing how, when, where, and why it happened. In this way,

implementing traffic management systems can mitigate future road accidents on the

location. This study aims to create a QGIS map that is integrated into a PC application

and can map reported road accidents in Davao City.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

As stated in earlier reports, hundreds of thousands of road accidents have taken

place worldwide. Here in the Philippines, road accidents are a constant problem in

every major city, especially in Davao City, where deaths and injuries within a calendar

year are numerous. These unfortunate losses are the result of various vehicles, and

almost all people are aware of the many reasons why these car accidents happen.

Local governments and citizens in Davao have tried various measures to stifle most

of these problems. The most recent plans were speed limit implementation, traffic light

upgrading, and integration of road cameras. Despite the best efforts of the citizens

and the traffic management teams handling these crashes, many more road accidents

are still happening today with alarming frequency.

This study introduces a road network analysis using QGIS and a web

application that saves road accident information such as locations, vehicle types, and

causes of the accident. This information serves as the baseline data of the traffic

planners for the traffic management system of the location. This data also aids the

deployment of traffic enforcers in the locality, thus optimizing the traffic workforce.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to create a QGIS map integrated into a PC

application, which serves as access to road accident incidents in Davao City. The

specific objectives of the study are the following:

 1. Gather crash data from news reports and government records through the

CTTMO that spans from 2016-2019. It includes the type and severity of the

crash, time of occurrence, information on the victims and perpetrators of the

crash (whether intentional or accidental), and vehicle information.

2. To create a QGIS baseline map of Davao City that displays the political

boundaries in terms of districts and barangays. The map shows the crash

hotspots correlated with the causes, road geometry, and road networks.

3. To integrate the QGIS map in a web page application and access for both the

residents and the emergency responders. This application aids the

emergency response teams in the locality to know the various crash hotspots

and its road network analysis for traffic planning.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The importance of this study is to help 911 emergency response teams of Davao

City in the data saving and emergency and traffic planning during road accidents. This

study also helps the response teams in having a system that can track accident-prone

areas along with the necessary information on the road accident cases.

1.5 Scope and Limitations

The study area is within the vicinity of Davao City only. The system disregards

reported road accidents not within the boundary of the city. The data used for this

study will also only cover vehicular accidents occurring from 2016-2019.
 The study is limited to the reported accidents only, be it through crowdsourcing

or traffic enforcers. The data gathered from the road accidents are prioritizing the

location or landmarks, the vehicle type involved in the accidents, and the type of

accident. The study does not account for potential factors preventing the areas from

being accident-prone and is not part of study output.

1.6 Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined in this study:

Crash hotspots are specific locations in urban areas/roads that usually have a high

percentage of moving vehicles and are known to be accident-prone due to car

accidents.

Emergency Responder, also known as first responders, are individuals trained to

assist victims of injury or poor health at the scene of an emergency [7].

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system that can capture, input,

check, and display data related to any position on the Earth's surface. This

framework can help many students, teachers and organizations better

understand spatial patterns and relationships by relating seemingly unrelated

data [8].

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is an open source GIS licensed under the GNU General Public

License. It is GIS software that is free to use and user-friendly for beginners [9].

Road Network is a system of interconnected roads used by various vehicles to travel

to a specific destination. The road network is the most basic level of transport
 infrastructure within urban areas, and links with all areas within and beyond the

boundaries of the urban area [10].

Traffic Management Systems (TMS) are application and management tools that aim

to improve the efficiency of traffic maintenance and safety of the transportation

systems [11].
 Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

2.1 Conceptual Framework

Input
Output
Parameters

Database of Crash
“Hotspots”

• Type of Car Crash • QGIS Map of

• Time of Davao City
Road network analysis
Occurrence • Web page-
• Type of Vehicle based user
• Location of Crash interface
Traffic Management
Response

The conceptual framework shows the input variables, namely the type of car

crash, time of occurrence, type of vehicle, and location of the crash which are factors

of identifying the crash hotspots, road network analysis, and traffic management

protocol that aids the traffic planners and enforcers in mitigating road accidents and

traffic congestion due to road accidents. These input parameters are stored, analyzed,

and processed by the geographical information system (GIS) based on the QGIS base

maps, in terms of political districts and barangay boundaries. The study gathers data

sources from the CTTMO on road accidents within Davao City from 2016-2019. After

collecting crash reports from the CTTMO, each crash is broken down into several

categories as data inputs: Type of the Car Crash, Time of Occurrence, Vehicle

Information, and Location of Crash. The data are encoded into a QGIS map of Davao

City, with each crash being displayed on the map at its location. This map is then
integrated into a GUI application on the PC that updates its database when more crash

data is entered.

The GUI also allows information from the people that witnessed a road accident,

and the administrator will confirm this before uploading it as a legitimate road accident.

The system notifies the emergency response teams of the location and what traffic

plan and protocol to follow.

2.2 Review of Literature

Traffic reports on road accidents are real-time news headlines. The reports

includes typically the location and its nearest landmarks, the vehicle type, the number

of casualties, and what causes the accident. This study gathers all these road accident

data, including the car crash type. These pieces of information provided include the

severity of the crash and categorized as follows:

• Vehicle rollovers happen when a car overturns because of the fault of the

drivers or environmental factors beyond their control [12].

• Single car accidents are when only one vehicle is involved in collisions, such

as colliding with debris and animals [13].

• Head-on collisions happen when two cars driving in opposite directions crash

into each other [14].

• Rear-end collisions are collisions in which one car strikes another car from the

rear [15].

• Side-impact accidents, also known as T-bone accidents, happen when a car hit

on its side at an approximate 90-degree angle [16].

 For traffic congestion due to road accidents, the traffic management team

evaluates the road network for the traffic planning during the accident occurrence. A

road network defines the feature of the roads in terms of the intersections. Then, road

network analysis is important for proper road safety as it analyzes the interconnected

roads used by vehicles that travel to a specific destination. Through proper analysis,

it can solve traffic related problems by finding the shortest route for vehicles to get to

their destination safely or find another route to drive to should an accident happen to

the road they normally drive to. It can help emergency response teams by drastically

reducing the response time by providing them with better routes to travel so that they

may reach an ongoing road accident faster [10].

Traffic management systems are also essential as they can improve the

efficiency of traffic maintenance and safety of the transportation systems. It does so

by gathering information from diverse sources, uses the information gathered to

identify hazards that might hinder proper traffic enforcement, and then provides

services to control them [11].

In this study, to attain proper traffic management system (TMS) of roads during

accidents, both the data crash hotspots and the road network analysis are given

priority. The TMS includes location for the traffic enforcer deployment, total delay per

vehicle, and capacity utilization of the routes.

2.3 Review of Related Studies

The following are the related studies of that aids in attaining the goals of this

research. All these studies utilized details on road accidents and mapped these data

using GIS-based methodology to plan for traffic safety schemes.

Enhancing Road Traffic Safety: A GIS Based Methodology to Identify Potential Areas

of Improvement [17]

This study investigated the high crashes in Inland Empire, California by

developing methods to identify crash hotspots and introduce safety improvements on

the identified areas using GIS. The study helped the transportation agencies in

understanding fatal road accidents and injury-causing pedestrian crashes, leading to

understanding and mitigation of further accidents. The problems tackled were the

frequency of traffic accidents in certain areas in California and how they impose huge

economic burdens on their society. The crash statistics show common causes of road

accidents such as speeding, alcohol-drinking and improper departure.

The previous ways in identifying crash hotspots utilized statistical technique such

as the empirical Bayes (EB) and simulation methodology like GIS. Using the EB

technique outperformed other simplified methods in crash hotspot detection but the

complexity of the mathematical techniques often prevented the implementation. Also,

EB doesn’t have a software that display the output of these techniques. The GIS better

represents the outcome since it used geo-codes of the accident locations, developed

crashes maps and allowed database queries. But GIS is often underused in

transportation safety analysis as some public agencies do not integrate GIS platform

in the crash database, hence unable to use these GIS statistical analysis tools. The

differentiation done by the proponent was by developing a method on the crash

hotspot detection using the spatial statistical tool of the GIS software which associates

the influence of the spatial locational factors to the crash occurrence.

The data came from three different sources: road accident data, location

characteristics, and demographic data. The data for this study included the crash type,

severity, occurrence time, site description, information on those involved in the crash,
and vehicle information. The spatial characteristics of crash occurrence, demographic

distribution of a location was also investigated. This study also used data on population

density, socio-economic status and age distribution for raster GIS. All crash sites were

shown in the GIS map with the severity of the accident to the pedestrians and car

passengers, and its distance to certain locations of interest, such as malls, schools

and others.

The paper concluded that a GIS-based methodology shows accurate crash

clusters are made when a location has a frequency or concentration of car crashes.

The output map indicated that there were correlations with the location of schools,

pubs and bars with pedestrian crashes. In addition, a high number of injury hotspots

both minor and severe were noted on locations where the population was high, but

any correlation with socioeconomic distribution such as poverty or age distribution

were insignificant.

Traffic Accident Analysis for Dehradun City using GIS [18]

This paper’s goal was to study the various road accidents happening in Dehradun

City in India as it has become a growing concern. GIS technology is to be used to

analyze these traffic accidents properly. This study is done to raise awareness of the

frequency of traffic accidents in India and to help the authorities in finding a solution in

reducing them and in properly enforcing driving education to the drivers.

The main problems given by the paper are the alarming frequency of road

accidents in India and its lack of improvement. Reports have shown that nearly 85,000

people have died and around 300,000 people have been injured due to road accidents

every year. Over 10 million overall road accidents have happened with nearly 1.5

million lives lost, with other people suffering injuries. Despite government intervention,
seminars on road safety and programs to raise awareness, the situation has not yet

improved.

The existing solutions that were used to raise awareness of the accidents and

mitigate them have been done and varying models being developed such as Vehicle

Ownership Model, Registered Vehicle Model, and Road Accident Forecast Model.

However, the solutions do not take into account the spatial and temporal aspect of the

road accidents in their city, making them incomplete in their assessment of the many

accidents on Indian roads.

The differentiation done by the proponents was to base their study on the

Dehradun, the capital of Uttaranchal. They then made an evaluation of the accident

patterns and accounting for the spatial and temporal aspects of road accident analysis

according to yearly variations & monthly variations, accident analysis according to

comparative vehicle wise, time slot wise, person, and the type of accident. They also

used accident data collected from police stations for identification of blackspots and

linear stretches in Dehradun. The data collected will be used in GIS to make a map

tracking all patterns of accidents.

The methodology used in the paper was to first find data of accident records

through surveys from citizens and from six police stations in Dehradun from the year

1998 to 2002, and a map of the city using satellite imagery. The information collected

were the type of accidents, modes involved, name of the road, police station area, time

and date of accident and the name of the intersection. They then performed an

analysis related to road accidents by creating a spatial database incorporating all the

important information using ESRI ArcGIS.

The paper concluded that the city of Dehradun needed stricter enforcement of

traffic procedures to stifle road accidents as nearly 72% of road accidents lead to
deaths and various injuries. It also concluded that the number of accidents were at its

zenith during summer, specifically during May and this is likely due to tourist vehicles

passing through the city. Men were also seen as the more vulnerable group in this

study as the majority of drivers in India were male.

 Chapter III

Methodology

3.1 Research Design

The research design of this study is a developmental research that uses

quantitative analysis of the output factors of the GIS integrated with web design.

Developmental research is the study of designing, developing, and evaluating

programs, processes, and products that must have the ideal internal consistency and

effectiveness, and is incredibly important in the field. The usual types of developmental

research are when the product-development process is analyzed and the final product

is evaluated, when the impact of the product focuses on the learner or the organization,

and when it focuses on a general analysis of design development or evaluation

processes [19].

3.2 Research Procedure

The procedure of the study is categorized into data gathering, QGIS Map

Development, and Graphical User Interface (GUI) Integration. These procedures are

discussed further in the succeeding discussions.

Data Gathering

Gather the crash reports from the CTTMO and other legitimate sources.

Reports gathered from other means such as crowdsourcing must first be verified by
the CTTMO to prevent any erroneous reports from misleading both the public and the

response teams. Every recorded crash will then be put into the following categories:

Type of Car Crash, Time of Occurrence, Type of Vehicle and Location of Crash.

Information on the victims and the perpetrators will be included only when necessary.

After categorizing them, each crash will be grouped together based on their location,

to find any crash hotspots in a specific part of Davao City. Any car crash with

similar/correlating factors that ultimately caused the accident will be noted.

QGIS Map Development

This method first creates a baseline map of Davao City using an existing

satellite map, properly labeling the various political boundaries, barangay boundaries

and street routes. Apply the crash data on its proper location on the map. Each crash

must have the proper categories when it is placed on the location. In a crash hotspot

created with multiple road accident, each crash must be evenly spaced so that the

hotspot will not be incomprehensible to decipher. All street routes where vehicles are

allowed to drive to will have their lengths measured and the usual travel time calculated

for response teams to see possible routes in an emergency.

GUI Integration

GIS is usually integrated into a web database/client using Web GIS. Web GIS

is an information system distributed to other users, with a GIS server and a web

browser client. The important elements in web GIS are that it can easily be found by

users on the web as its server has a URL, the client needs HTTP with the proper
specifications so that the server can be sent requests, the GIS operations can be

thoroughly made by the server and sent to the client via HTTP, and the format of the

response sent to the client can be in many formats, such as HTML, binary image, XML,

or JSON [20].

In this study, the QGIS map will be integrated into a web database/client. Ex.

GeoViewer, QGIS Cloud, Web GIS. The map will display the crash data based on

which parameter/category the user will chose. For emergency response teams, the

webpage will generate street routes for them to reach any future road accidents faster.

It will also factor its generation of routes based on ongoing traffic, bad weather

patterns, time, etc.

3.3 Technical Design Workflow

Export Data to Web Map is converted to

QGIS Map w/ Full
Client HTML Webpage
Inputs & Outputs

Website is free to QGIS Webpage is

Road accident use for response online
frequency is tracked teams

Traffic Response is
improved
References

1. Road accidents. National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

https://www.insee.fr/en/metadonnees/definition/c1116

2. Types of Car Accidents. Justia. https://www.justia.com/car-accidents/types-of-

car-accidents/

3. Road traffic injuries. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-

room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffic-injuries

4. Philippines: Road Traffic Accidents. World Life Expectancy.

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/philippines-road-traffic-accidents

5. Leandre Grecia. MMDA reports an all-time high of 121,771 road accidents in

2019. Top Gear Philippines. https://www.topgear.com.ph/news/motoring-

news/mmda-mmaras-2019-report-a4354-20200224

6. Lyka Amethyst H. Casamayor. Davao recorded 13,000 vehicular accidents in

2018. SunStar Davao.

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1780785/Davao/Local-News/Davao-

recorded-13000-vehicular-accidents-in-2018

7. Emergency responder. The Free Dictionary. https://medical-

dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/emergency+responder

8. GIS (Geographic Information System). National Geographic.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/geographic-information-

system-gis/

9. About QGIS. QGIS. https://www.qgis.org/en/site/about/index.html

10. Road network. https://securipedia.eu/mediawiki/index.php/Road_network

11. Allan M de Souza, Celso ARL Brennand, Roberto S Yokoyama, Erick A

Donato, Edmundo RM Madeira, Leandro A Villas. Traffic management

 systems: A classification, review, challenges, and future perspectives.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1550147716683612

12. Vehicle rollover. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

https://www.safercar.gov/Vehicle-Shoppers/Rollover/Causes

13. Single-Vehicle Accidents. HG.org. https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/single-

vehicle-accidents-31396

14. Head-On Collisions. Justia. https://www.justia.com/car-accidents/types-of-car-

accidents/head-on-collisions/ side-impact-accidents/

15. Rear-End Collisions. Justia. https://www.justia.com/car-accidents/types-of-

car-accidents/rear-end-collisions/

16. Side Impact Accidents. Justia. https://www.justia.com/car-accidents/types-of-

car-accidents/ side-impact-accidents/

17. Sudeshna Mitra, PhD. Enhancing Road Traffic Safety: A GIS Based

Methodology to Identify Potential Areas of Improvement.

18. Dr. S. K. Ghosh, Dr. M. Parida, Jay K. Uraon. Traffic Accident Analysis for

Dehradun City using GIS.

19. Developmental Research: The Definition and Scope. Richey, Rita C.

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED373753

20. About web GIS. ArcGIS Enterprise.

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/create-web-

apps/windows/about-web-gis.htm