Multi-Criteria Decision Making and Geoinformatics: Evaluating Tools for Alternative Road Network in Hilly Terrain

Abstract

Mobility is the backbone of activity system of the human race. Road transportation network has been an essential infrastructure facility, which needs to be developed and regularly maintained to detain increasing population and economy. A road network should offer connectivity throughout the year without any natural and anthropogenic hindrance. In the Ladakh province of Jammu and Kashmir, where road is the largest way (more than 80%) of civilian transportation, roads do not remain open for more than six months in a year. In the current study, I have proposed a road network for hilly terrain with maximum efficacy and minimum obstacles, on sound scientific basis using GIS and remote sensing techniques. The existing road network of Ladakh province has been mapped using toposheets and updated with satellite imageries. Drivers have been identified on the basis of different agents like socio-economic, physiognomic and climate factors, and their preference has been assigned through a multiple criteria decision-making process on Saaty scale. The results indicate that the proposed road has concentrated to areas with high road-based potential accessibility, especially in the snowfall season. All of the paths of the route planning analysis were successfully matched with the drivers’ paths that would normally be chosen in reality. It is anticipated that the use of analytical techniques such as AHP would be useful to overcome the aforementioned problems.

Keywords: Road network, modeling, AHP, Ladakh