A GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis approach for public school site selection in Surabaya, Indonesia

Surabaya is one of the old cities of Indonesia and has been inhabited since the Colonial era. It has been continuously growing until today leading to expansion of its area to the south, east, and west. Unfortunately, it has not been supported by the addition of new public schools, particularly at the secondary and high school levels. This research aimed to help the government by determining the suitability level of the whole area of the city for locating a new school and for evaluating current school locations. This research proposed six spatial factors: administration, population, transportation, land-use, student flow, and public preferences. Each factor was represented as raster file built from primary and secondary tabular and spatial data. Each factor then was weighted from the multi-criteria decision analysis step using the analytical hierarchy process method. The results show recommended and non-recommended areas in Surabaya for locating a new school building. This research integrated GIS analysis, web-GIS application, public participation, and MCDA to identify the best solution for this case.