Normalization and variant assessment methods in selection of road alignment variants – case study

Wladyslaw Gardziejczyk,Piotr Zabicki

doi:10.3846/13923730.2016.1210223

Wladyslaw Gardziejczyk, Piotr Zabicki

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2016.1210223

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Abstract

The choice of the most beneficial road alignment variant is a multicriteria issue, based on transport, economic, social and environmental criteria. The criteria chosen for a multicriteria analysis can be expressed through measurable or immeasurable parameters. In order to compare and assess the variants it is necessary to normalize the criteria, which means a rescaling of their value, so that the criteria values fall into a specific range. The main aim of normalization is to assign an identical weight to each criterion in relation to other criteria. This article presents a review of the influence of criteria normalization methods and the variant assessment methods on the choice of the most beneficial road alignment variant on the example of the bypass of the town of Księżyno, which is a stretch of Regional Road 678 near Bialystok. Four variants of road alignment were compared and their ranking was created using six assessment methods. It was proven that the choices of the criteria normalization method as well as the variant assessment method both have significant influence on the result of the multicriteria analysis in the decision-making process of selecting the road alignment.

Highlights

The process of designing roads is difficult and requires taking many factors into account, which is done by using the multicriteria analysis of the suggested variants of a designed road
This article contains criteria normalization which was conducted according to eleven methods, while selecting the road alignment variant of the bypass of the town of Księżyno, which is a stretch of Regional Road 678, using six variant assessment methods
Normalization methods which in point 5.2 were included in the first group, in an analysis without taking criteria weights into account (Table 4) pointed to the V3 variant as the most beneficial solution according to assessment methods by Wald, Savage and Hurwicz, whereas they pointed to the V1 variant as the most beneficial according to the method by Laplace

Summary

Introduction

The process of designing roads is difficult and requires taking many factors into account, which is done by using the multicriteria analysis of the suggested variants of a designed road. The multicriteria analysis is a set of algorithms used to select the most beneficial variant of road alignment, while taking into account transport, environmental, economic and social criteria weights (De Silva, Tatam 1996; Kalamaras et al 2000; De Luca et al 2012; Gardziejczyk, Zabicki 2014). It is based on the appropriate selection of assessment criteria and the weights assigned to them. J =1 where π j – is the j-th criterion weight for the i-th alternative

Literature review

Methods of variants assessment

Assumptions

Analysis of criteria normalization methods

Conclusions