Planning of rural road network using sustainable practices to maximize the accessibility to health and education facilities using ant colony optimization

Abstract

Well-connected rural road network is an essential requirement for the development of any rural area; as it uplifts the living standards and improves the social and economic status of that area. Developing countries like India have large population in rural areas living below the poverty line and the road connectivity is an important tool for providing them access to market, schools, hospitals and many other important facilities. Past researches have shown that providing rural road connectivity, improves the productivity of the area, provides more opportunity for agricultural products to reach the market and further improves the economic status of the rural areas. Access to education and healthcare facilities also improves the overall quality of life. Ant colony optimization (ACO) can be specifically employed to tackle challenges related to road networks in rural and urban planning. Through the application of ant algorithms and different approaches of distinct optimization, this study presents a mathematical model for rural road network planning and aims to maximize the user benefits by improving the access to facilities like education and health for maximum population with minimum length of construction. The effectiveness of the developed model is assessed by collecting the necessary facility data from Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) national GIS website, using C# programming language, QGIS software and by demonstrating its capability to optimize the rural road network for twelve villages of Haldwani block, Nainital district, in the state of Uttarakhand, India. The study concludes that the optimized road network designed by the ant colony algorithms model is 14% shorter than the existing network, and also provides increased accessibility to educational and health facilities. These findings underscore the effectiveness of ant colony optimization in planning rural road networks and highlight its potential for enhancing connectivity and improving socio-economic conditions in rural regions.