Geographical Analysis of Emergency Evacuations in the Aegean Sea: Towards the Utilization of Big Data Analytics

Island areas in the Mediterranean constitute an important cultural and natural resource as well as spatial entities upon which dynamic activities, such as tourism, take place. The annual seasonality of tourist flows and the spatial fragmentation of activities in island areas place certain burdens that call for a dynamic approach in decision-making as to the provision of various services, e.g. health services, based on relevant spatially-related data analysis. The availability of health services as well as the specialized medical personnel determines in a certain extent the quality of health provision in island areas. The National Center of Emergency Evacuations in Greece (EKAB) provides the means for emergency health evacuation from the Greek islands to specialized hospitals in the mainland whenever necessary, playing thus a crucial role for the improvement of quality of life in the Aegean archipelago. The focus of this work is on improving emergency evacuation service provision of EKAB in Greek islands by analyzing population and transportation data for providing input to more “smart” health provision decision-making processes. After examining the current and potential future demand for health services through population data, the effectiveness of Big Data (BD) analytics utilization is explored in support of optimal allocation of EKAB resources, maximization of supply and minimization of possible evacuation time. The introduction of BD analytics in regional decision-making processes may enhance potential for tailored-made planning, faster and informed decision-making as well as scenarios’ testing, service monitoring and more effective forecasting.