If war comes, where do I go? : Analyzing accessibility to shelters in Sweden using GIS

Sammanfattning: Shelters have been a significant part of the Swedish civil defense for a long time. In times of war in Europe, questions have been raised regarding the 64,000 shelters in Sweden and the civil population’s access to them. This study aims to investigate civilians’ access to the Swedish shelters, as well as where demand is high and low and where new shelters might be needed. The study has been conducted through Location-allocation analyses in GIS. Findings show that the accessibility to shelters varies throughout the country and that shelters are most accessible in urban areas. The average time taken to walk to the closest shelter in Stockholm Municipality is approximately 2 minutes. Findings also show that there are many new urban areas in Stockholm County where there are no shelters, and that there are densification areas where new shelters could be of use and meet demand as well.