Managing Filling Stations Spatial Database Using an Innovative GIS Tool – Case Study Afipko City in Nigeria

With the Nigeria economy and her citizens over reliance on crude oil and its refined products, the use of petrol, diesel and kerosene in fuelling of generators and automobiles or for domestic cooking becomes very essential. Hence, constant visit to filling stations is necessary at one time or the other. This has in turn enthused the siting of so many filling stations and one is forced to wonder if they all complied with the standards required for their establishment. The question of where to buy fuel and which filling station is sited short of the regulatory standards can be appropriately answered using Geographic Information System (GIS). This study focuses on analysing the location of filling stations within Afikpo, in Ebonyi State Nigeria against the laws/regulations guiding their establishment. The coordinates of the filling stations were acquired with a handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and plotted on a georeferenced map in ArcMap environment of ArcGIS 10.2 software. All the analyses were performed in the ArcMap environment using spatial analyst, spatial statistics and proximity tools available in the software. The findings revealed that the filling stations are spatially distributed in a dispersed pattern. The results of the analysis reveals that 44.4% of the filling stations did not meet the criteria of 15 meters minimum distance from the pump to the edge of the road. 22.2% of the filling stations were sited too close (lesser than 100 meters) to a health care centre. 66.7 % % did not meet the criteria of 400 meter minimum distance to other stations when located on the same road side (with no road separation). This database created on filling stations provides a platform to help policy makers (regulatory agencies) in planning, management and effective monitoring/supervision. It is there recommended that the regulatory bodies should be proactive in the discharge of their duties.