Black Spot Mapping GIS Consultant- Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe

Background and Rationale

St John Ambulance is a first aid and health charity organization incorporated in the Republic of Kenya under the St John Ambulance of Kenya Act, Cap. 259 of the Laws of Kenya with mandates to provide emergency medical support to communities promote charitable works aimed at reducing human suffering and provide technical reserves to the medical services of the Government and security agencies of Kenya among other functions. organization St. John in partnership with Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V., RACIDA and MID-P is implementing a 3-year project called improving the first responder sector in Kenya with an aim of enhancing first response to emergencies and disasters in Kenya. The project focus is on building the capacity of St John and other partners in increasing their technical capacity, in-country fundraising capacity, their public recognition and accountability and sharing of best practices.

The worrying trend of road accidents is becoming a serious concern to St John Kenya, its partners and the country at large. A recent report by the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) shows that 4347 people died in road crashes in 2021, up from 3975 in 2020.

To reduce road crashes, the causes of these crashes such as driver, vehicle and roadway should be identified. To diagnose the cause of crashes, it is necessary to determine the black spot along accident-prone roads. With this knowledge, the actual causes such as poor design or lack of proper traffic signs can be identified. This will lead to effective solutions.

The developed system records all the necessary information about the locations and also the necessary information about the accident, such as the type of accident (frontal, rear, sideswipe, vehicle with pedestrian collision), the main causes of the accident (driver, pedestrian, roadway) and the conditions of the environment. All this information is stored in the attribute for each feature in the GIS. The system can be adopted by transportation authorities to document the accidents, and the information is also useful for St. John to establish rescue centres at these critical points.

The high-resolution photos will be used for the black spot mapping report. The videos will be used for discussions with the authorities to determine interventions (education/engineering/lobbying). Participation in the relevant coordination mechanisms will contribute to positioning on these agendas.

There are five counties targeted for this activity i.e. Kiambu, Nyeri, Laikipia, Embu and Meru counties where the exercise will be conducted using GIS software as a black spot analysis tool. Five years (2016-2021) worth of accident data history on the five counties will be collected to identify locations with a higher rate of crash occurrences.

This entire block of accident data will be spatially distributed on the digitized map of the road (including the crash occurrence sites) and the respective weight based on their accident severity will be applied.

In addition, records are also needed to provide facts to guide programs including enforcement, education, maintenance, vehicle inspection, emergency medical services and engineering improvements that can be provided to the streets and highways.

The consultant is expected to write, design, edit and print 300 full-color black Spot reports, and to develop an online portal for the blackspot maps. This is to make the blackspot maps easily accessible and easy to disseminate. Afterwards, St John will host the portal alongside its other online web systems so that there are no additional costs after the project.

The reports from this exercise will be shared with key stakeholders i.e. Kenya national highway authority(KENHA), National transport and safety authority (NTSA), Kenya police, county government, transport SACCOs among others. The report will be used to inform key policy decisions on road safety.

GIS black spot mapping Consultancy Objectives.

Overall Objective

Identify black spot areas in the selected 5 counties.

Specific Objectives

i. To identify major contributing factors to the severity of road crashes in Kiambu, Nyeri, Laikipia, Embu and Meru

ii. To diagnose the cause of crashes such as poor design or lack of proper traffic signs.

iii. To identify accident blackspots locations in the selected counties based on secondary data collected.

iv. To develop maps showing accident spots areas.

v. To Analyze and suggest recommendations and way forward to St john in terms of road safety guidelines

vi. To develop county blackspot management guidelines highlighting major causes of accidents at the identified blackspot in the 5 counties. etc.

vii. To document the black spot in the 5 Counties using 15 minutes’ documentary which will be used as educational and lobbying material by St. John

Deliverables

The consultant shall deliver the following:

I. Inception report detailing methodology/identification criteria, literature review of existing data, scope, and schedule of the work to be done.

II. 15 minutes high-quality video highlighting identified blackspot areas per county and documentary interviews from the resident around the black spot areas.

III. Data collection tools and methodology.

IV. Database of the collected and analyzed data.

V. Consultation meetings/FDGs, validation of data collected and results

VI. PowerPoint presentation of the hotspot map.

VII. Detailed maps for hotspots within each county.

VIII. Recommendation to St. John on where to set up rescue centres in Kiambu, Nyeri, Laikipia, Embu and Meru counties as per the findings.

IX. Blackspot management guidelines for the 5 Counties

X. High-resolution observation photos per site

Outputs

Key outputs include:

I. Produce 300 copies full-color blackspot reports

II. Develop an online portal hosted by St John with an interactive map of hotspots in relevant counties.

III. Develop GIS software that transfers the uploaded GIS coordinates from the Coordinate Finders to the GIS Portal for exploration, visualization and analysis of the data, creation of 2D maps and 3D scenes.

IV. 15 minutes video for lobbying and education purposes by St. John

V. A selection of high-quality photos to be used for both the report and the St. John communications department

VI. Raw videos highlighting causes of accidents per black spot across the 5 counties

Duration of Assignment

The consultant should be available to start work in April 2022 and should plan on completing the assignment within 40 working days.

Qualifications and Experience of Consultant

The independent consultant/consultancy firm must demonstrate experience and expertise as follows:

1. A master’s or bachelor’s degree in Geographic Information Systems or related field of study.
2. At least three years in the practical application of Geographic Information System technologies.
3. Must make use of GIS software for the mapping of hotspots.
4. Experience in GIS analysis; spatial data collection; development of web-mapping applications; and project management.
5. Knowledge and understanding of theories, concepts and approaches relevant to road safety.
6. Proficiency with front-end design languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and various mapping languages
7. Experience with GPS measuring tools
8. A member of Societies and Professional Organizations for GIS Analysts
9. Professional photography skills and experience
10. Video production and documentary skills and experience