Evaluation of the Multi-Criteria Approach on Rail Route Planning

Chanushi Amodya; DMDOK Dissanayake; HMR Premasiri

Abstract

A Geographic Information System (GIS) includes of a hardware and software which are used for purposes such as to capture, store, evaluate, administer and distribute spatial data. GIS has a vast array of spatial analysis tools such as GIS viewer, Geodatabase, mapping tools, modelling tools etc. At present GIS is broadly used in conjunction with multi criteria decision analysis method to perform infrastructure studies and transportation studies such as road and rail. Multi criteria decision analysis can be applied in vehicle routing, site selection, scenario evaluation, land suitability, impact assessment, and location allocation for different sectors. According to majority of the literature, main factors considered in designing railway with GIS are land use, slope, drainage and soil. When multi criteria decision analysis is combined with GIS, it considers different geographical data models, spatial dimension of the evaluating criteria and decision alternatives in those criteria. The best route out of various alternate alignments has been designed using GIS thematic maps and network analysis in ArcGIS as a base. As a conclusion, this review study proves that multi criteria decision analysis combined with GIS plays a major role in modern railroad construction.