Research Article

GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Site Suitability Analysis for Elderly Care Residential Facilities in Abuja Municipal Area Council, Nigeria

Aishatu Gadzama Dauda1*, Ozien Mamudu1
1 Department of Geographic Information Science, African Regional Institute for Geospatial Information Science and Technology (AFRIGIST), Obafemi Awolowo University Campus, Ile-Ife, 220282, Nigeria
* Corresponding author: cadzama@gmail.com
Published: Apr, 2026
DOI: 10.54222/jgst.2026.n6i1ikab
Pages: 18-35
Views: 46
Downloads: 5

Abstract

The rapid growth of the elderly population, coupled with accelerated urban expansion in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), has created increasing demand for well-located elderly care residential facilities (ERFs). This study applies a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to identify suitable locations for ERFs in AMAC. Siting criteria covering accessibility, proximity to healthcare services, environmental quality, safety, and socio-demographic factors were derived from literature, expert opinion, and field-based insights. These criteria were standardized and weighted using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and subsequently integrated through a weighted linear combination (WLC). Constraint layers representing incompatible land uses were incorporated to refine the final suitability output. The results show that proximity to healthcare facilities (47.00%) and elderly population density (24.10%) are the most influential criteria. The suitability analysis revealed that though most of the area were not suitable, 29.40% (391.31 km²) are suitable and 5.99% (79.70 km²) are most suitable for siting elderly care facilities in AMAC. The validation of results using existing facility locations further supports the reliability of the model. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of GISbased MCDA as a decision-support tool for elderly care planning and provides a spatial framework to guide policymakers and urban planners for improved accessibility and quality of life among the elderly population. 

Keywords

GIS site suitability elderly care residential facilities MCDA AMAC Nigeria.

References

  1. Aboderin, I., & Beard, J. R. (2015). Older people's health in sub-Saharan Africa. The Lancet, 385(9968), e9–e11.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61602-0
  2. Abubakar, I. R. (2014). Abuja city profile. Cities, 41, 81–91.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2014.05.004
  3. Adama, O. (2007). Governing from above: Solid waste management in Nigeria's new capital city of Abuja. Habitat International, 31(3–4), 409–422.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2007.04.001
  4. Adetunji, M. A. (2020). Accessibility of Elderly Citizens to Basic Facilities in Akure Metropolis in Nigeria. Journal of Architectural Design and Urbanism, 2(2), 38–52. https://doi.org/10.14710/jadu.v2i2.7641
  5. Aliyu, A. A., & Amadu, L. (2017). Urbanization, cities, and health: The challenges to Nigeria – a review. Annals of African Medicine, 16(3), 149-158.https://doi.org/10.4103/aam.aam_1_17
  6. Carpentieri, G., Guida, C., & Masoumi, H. E. (2020). Multimodal accessibility to primary health services for the elderly: A case study of Naples, Italy. Sustainability, 12(3), 781.https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030781
  7. Guida, C., Carpentieri, G., & Masoumi, H. E. (2022). Measuring spatial accessibility to urban services for older adults: An application to healthcare facilities in Milan. European Transport Research Review, 14, 23.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-022-00544-3
  8. Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). (2023). List of PVC collation centres for ward level collection (6th–15th January 2023), Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC). Independent National Electoral Commission.
  9. Ismaila, A. B., & Usul, N. (2013). A GIS-based spatial analysis of health care facilities in Yola, Nigeria. In GEOProcessing 2013: The Fifth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services (pp. 46–53). ThinkMind.https://www.thinkmind.org/library/GEOProcessing/GEOProcessing_2013/geoprocessing_2013_3_10_30028.html
  10. Izuegbu, O. U., Sangari, D. U., & Kpalo, S. Y. (2025). Change detection study of Abuja Municipal Area Council Abuja, Federal Capital Territory Nigeria between 2002 and 2023. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 9(3).https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.90300396
  11. Mahmoud, I. M., Duker, A., Conrad, C., Thiel, M., & Shaba Ahmad, H. (2016). Analysis of settlement expansion and urban growth modelling using geoinformation for assessing potential impacts of urbanization on climate in Abuja City, Nigeria. Remote Sensing, 8(3), 220.https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8030220
  12. Malczewski, J. (2006). GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis: A survey of the literature. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 20(7), 703–726. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658810600661508
  13. Malczewski, J., & Rinner, C. (2015). Multicriteria decision analysis in geographic information science. Springer.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74757-4
  14. Mokhtar, E. S., Md Sharin, N. A. B., Idrees, M. O., Saad, N. M., Astuti, P., Mohd Sidek, N. Z., Mohd Yusoff, Z., & Abdul Wahab, S. M. (2023). Geospatial analysis of sustainable living residential site suitability using analytical hierarchy process. AIP Conference Proceedings, 2881, 040011.https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0167596
  15. Nordin, S., McKee, K., Wijk, H., & Elf, M. (2017). The association between the physical environment and the well-being of older people in residential care facilities: A multilevel analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 73(12), 2942–2952. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13358
  16. Nsu, R. E., Ovye, A. D., Ugal, A. A., & Moses, A. (2024). Healthcare facilities mapping within Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), FCT-Abuja. International Journal of Social Science Research and Anthropology, 5(6) https://taapublications.com/tijssra/article/view/236
  17. Oloukoi, G., Akingbade, A. O., Atureta, O. G., & Enaruvbe, G. O. (2022). GIS-based suitable site selection for internally displaced persons' camps in Abuja, Nigeria. Osun Geographical Review, 25(3), 1–14. https://journals.uniosun.edu.ng/ogr/article/view/79
  18. Saaty, T. L. (1980). The analytic hierarchy process: Planning, priority setting, resource allocation. McGraw-Hill.
  19. Shuaibu, J. A., & Kara, C. (2019). Evaluating suitability for sustainable urban growth of Abuja by using MCE and GIS. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 6(7), 68–76.https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2019.07.009
  20. Tanyi, P. L., André, P., & Mbah, P. (2018). Care of the elderly in Nigeria: Implications for policy. Cogent Social Sciences, 4(1), 1555201.https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2018.1555201
  21. Tao, Z., Cheng, Y., Dai, T., & Rosenberg, M. W. (2014). Spatial optimization of residential care facility locations in Beijing, China: Maximum equity in accessibility. International Journal of Health Geographics, 13, 33.https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-13-33
  22. Tripathi, M., Sahu, N., & Pandey, A. (2021). GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis for site suitability. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 193, 1–17.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09001-5
  23. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2024). World Population Prospects 2024.https://population.un.org/wpp/
  24. Vahidnia, M. H., Alesheikh, A. A., & Alimohammadi, A. (2009). Hospital site selection using fuzzy AHP and its derivatives. Journal of Environmental Management, 90(10), 3048–3056.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.04.010
  25. van Hoof, J., & Marston, H. R. (2021). Age-friendly cities and communities: State of the art and future perspectives. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4), 1644.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041644
  26. Wang, M., Qi, X., Li, Z., Li, J., & Dong, S. (2023). Evaluation of the suitability of elderly care in prefecture-level cities in China based on GIS. Heliyon, 9(6), e16539.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16539
  27. World Health Organization. (2007). Global age-friendly cities: A guide.https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241547307
  28. World Health Organization. (2015). Measuring the age-friendliness of cities: A guide to using core indicators.https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/203830
  29. World Health Organization. (2020). UN Decade of Healthy Ageing: Plan of action 2021–2030.https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/decade-of-healthy-ageing/decade-proposal-final-apr2020-en.pdf
  30. Yang, J., Lou, Z., Tang, X., & Sun, Y. (2023). Multi-source data-based evaluation of suitability of land for elderly care and layout optimization: A case study of Changsha, China. Sustainability, 15(3), 2034. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032034
  31. Yu, J., Leung, M., Ma, G., & Xia, J. (2022). Older adults' access to and satisfaction with primary hospitals based on spatial and non-spatial analyses. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 845648. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.845648
  32. Yuchi, W., Sbihi, H., Davies, H., Tamburic, L., & Brauer, M. (2020). Road proximity, air pollution, noise, green space and neurologic disease incidence: A population-based cohort study. Environmental Health, 19, 8.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-020-0565-4
  33. Zhang, S.-C., Wang, H., Liu, Z., Zeng, S., Jin, Y., & Baležentis, T. (2019). A comprehensive evaluation of the community environment adaptability for elderly people based on the improved TOPSIS. Information, 10(12), 389.https://doi.org/10.3390/info10120389
  34. Zhang, Y., Zhu, J., Li, F., & Wang, Y. (2024). Site selection of elderly care facilities based on multi-source spatial big data and integrated learning. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 13(12), 451.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi13120451
  35. Zhou, X., & Cao, K. (2023). Spatial multi-objective optimization of institutional elderly-care facilities: A case study in Shanghai. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 122, 103436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2023.103436
How to Cite

Dauda, A. G., & Mamudu, O. (2026). GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Site Suitability Analysis for Elderly Care Residential Facilities in Abuja Municipal Area Council, Nigeria. Journal of Geospatial Science and Technology, 6(1), 18-35. https://doi.org/10.54222/jgst.2026.n6i1ikab

A. G. Dauda, and O. Mamudu, "GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Site Suitability Analysis for Elderly Care Residential Facilities in Abuja Municipal Area Council, Nigeria," Journal of Geospatial Science and Technology, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 18-35, April 2026. doi: 10.54222/jgst.2026.n6i1ikab

Share this article:
Facebook X / Twitter LinkedIn
Download PDF View Full Text (PDF) Back to Articles