Multi-criteria based selection of fibre optic Internet- based business location: A case study of Nairobi central business district

Abstract

of a spatial nature, has been in use for more than 30 years. Initial use was limited to small groups within individual agencies working on very specific projects of limited scope. In the last decade, locating business premises has been recognized as a significant planning problem and has received much attention from researchers in the planning sector. The main objective of the study was to produce a GIS based solution to be used by investors in deciding the best location for their internet based business premises. Deliverables included a Nairobi central business district (NCDB) fiber optic network, a Nairobi CBD digital map with fiber optic network incorporated, demonstrate the use of GIS in planning and use the developed system to identify possible premises for office space. Roads data was digitized from Nairobi Topo sheet while fiber optic network data was acquired from Kenya data networks and incorporated in the digital map of Nairobi CBD.Wired buildings list was acquired from Kenya Data Networks (KDN) also and its spatial element collected from the ground using a hand held global positioning system (GPS) receiver. After identifying important factors which determine suitability for office premises location, a geodatabase was developed and a user friendly structured query language (SQL) functionality model for querying the database .For the purpose of the study, Nairobi Central Business District was used as a case study