Use of GIS as an integrated tool, on selecting minimum hazard traces for new railways & highways

Abstract

Natural hazards, such as landslides, floods, cyclones, storms, coastal erosion & tsunami etc; bring catastrophic outcome on transportation infra-structure. Inundation, embankment damages, washed off, structure damages, debris fallen are the major problems on current highway and railway sector. Reconstruction of these damaged infrastructures is a burden to economy of a country. A well planned, road, railway or its infrastructures that avoids possible disaster prone areas may not subject to severe damages by the natural or manmade disasters. However, integrated modern technological strategies, such as GIS, RS etc. are not used sufficiently for disaster resilience in developing countries during the planning & design stages of roads and railways. Often, traditional strategies, such as field visits and surveys, maps and library surveys, etc. are used for this purpose. This paper is an attempt to develop a methodology to realize suitable traces for road and rail developments, against disasters, using GIS spatial analysis tool. Superimposing feature layers and its attributes, such as geomorphology, terrain, land use, areas vulnerable to inundation, landslides, cyclones etc., a GIS data base is developed. Then, by using a systematic strategy, those features and attributes are weighted accordingly its significance and estimated magnitude, using published information about disaster risk. Using these weighted, value added data; less vulnerable traces can be developed with the help of GIS spatial analysis tool. By using a VB interface this tool can be made user friendly such a way that different disaster scenarios could be evaluated. A case study of a new railway development is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed methodology