Route alignment planning for a new highway between two cities using Geoinformatics techniques

Abstract

An attempt has been made to delineate and identify the alignment of a new route between two important cities of north India, Haridwar & Roorkee using Geoinformatics techniques. Geo-engineering parameters like slope, aspect, geology, land use, drainage and soil along with some techno-economical parameters have been used for this purpose. Multi-criteria weight method has been applied. Five weighting methods (AHP - Analytical Hierarchy Process, Rank Sum, Rank Reciprocal, Rank Exponent and Ratio Estimation) were applied simultaneously to eliminate biasness in weight assignment to the input parameters. The results show that AHP method is the best and ratio estimation method is the second best method for identification of optimum route alignment. Few more parameters were used for final selection of optimum route viz., minimum construction cost; minimum number of bridges and culverts on that route; maximum number of settlement within 5 km buffers on both sides of route; maximum number of tourist locations like temples, waterfalls, springs etc. within 5 km buffer zone on both side of route. The proposed route between Roorkee and Haridwar towns is only 29.22 km long (includes a 17.10 km long part of the existing road), the new road required is 12.12 km, while the existing longer route between Roorkee and Haridwar is 33 km (instead of 29.22 km). By using multi-criteria weighted methods of route alignment, a length of approximately 3.78 km can be avoided. It was also observed that slope, land use and drainage parameters are more sensitive for route alignment.

Keywords

• Route alignment
• Geo-engineering parameters
• Multi-criteria weights
• Techno-economical parameter
• Buffer zone
• Sensitivity analysis