Analysis of Standard Gauge Railway Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Abstract

This research study was undertaken to determine optimal railway route using Remote Sensing and GIS modelling for the standard gauge railway. The factors for optimal routing were land use, geology, slope, topographic maps, and GIS layers relating to hydrology and transportation network. An expert questionnaire was administered to experts and professionals to obtain their responses on the relative importance of various factors in least cost path determination. The questionnaire analysis was used to derive weights for the variables using Multi-criteria Analysis and Analytical Hierarchy Process. A model was developed incorporating route length and the identified factors to generate an optimal route for the standard gauge railway. Geospatial Information System (GIS) was used for spatial modelling, analysis and data overlay. The optimal paths based on environmental, engineering and a combination of both engineering and environmental factors were derived and a comparison made. The results show that a purely environmental optimal route would be 90km longer than a purely engineering route. This demonstrates that optimal route planning using GIS could provide strong decision support for users in determining optimal routes.