Evaluation of Proposed Railroad Tracks Compared with an Optimized Route Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process and GIS Techniques
Selecting a railway route location is a complex task that requires significant time and effort. This study outlines the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with a Geographic Information System (GIS) to define the best path and compare it with the proposed tracks. The route starts from Mosul in northern Iraq and ends in Fishkhabour near the Iraqi-Syrian-Turkish border. The preferred path was identified based on a set of spatial criteria. With the aid of a group of decision-makers and experts in railway design and transportation planning, a questionnaire was created to highlight the relative relevance of the location criteria. This was carried out using pairwise comparisons after creating a hierarchical framework to assess the criteria of the criteria. The outcomes of the relative importance criterion showed that the highest relative importance was for water sources, which amounted to 29.7%, while the environmental impact criterion had the lowest value of 6.9%. An equivalent cost surface was formulated, and the route path was determined using various maps and a unique framework for data analysis on the adjusted surface. The prepared route path reduces the worthy cost surface by up to 63% compared with the other routes suggested by the General Company for Iraqi Railways. Earthworks, intersections with irrigation canals and valleys, and path length were also considered to determine the best route. The study showed that the path prepared using the analytical hierarchy process and GIS techniques was the preferred path.
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