Abstract
A variety of factors are involved in inter-city transportation route selection in the areas of complex terrain. With the help of Geographic Information System (GIS), three quantitative methods were employed to determine the transport routes between 44 cities in Northern Yunnan (China), an area with alpine valleys, Karst mountains, and plateau basins. The network analysis in GIS was used to find the routes based on the Transport Suitability Evaluation (TSE) map, which was produced from several factors, including population density, terrain slope, vertical terrain dissection, landslide and mud-flock area, land cover types, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Grey Relational Analysis (GRA), and Delphi analysis were used to collect and calculate suitability values of these factors. Finally, all the routes connecting 44 cities of Northern Yunnan formed a network which could provide reference for route selection planning in the area.
Highlights
Transportation plays a major role in the economic development of regions with complex terrains, because the cities in the regions are usually not self-sufficient in energy supply, food demand, as well as available appliance and commuters
Shahabi et al and Yesilnacar et al [6] combined Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and satellite images for waste landfill selection in Geographic Information System (GIS); Wu et al [7] conducted site selection for branch banks based on GIS; Uyan [8] used AHP and GIS to find suitable sites for solar farms based on terrain and weather conditions and agricultural facilities
The following datasets were used in this study: (1) Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI_TIRS) data acquired on October 19, 2015; (2) Digital Elevation Models (DEM) created from 1:50,000 topographic maps; (3) Geo-hazard incidents of every village from 2010 to 2015; and (4) Population data acquired from the Census Data of China 2015
Summary
Transportation plays a major role in the economic development of regions with complex terrains, because the cities in the regions are usually not self-sufficient in energy supply, food demand, as well as available appliance and commuters. For inter-city transport route selection in such areas, it is essential to consider the factors such as distance, suitability, and resistance. These factors include natural elements (e.g. vertical terrain dissection, land cover types, and geological conditions), as well as socioeconomic factors (e.g. population density, level of urbanization, and industry). Resistance analysis is to determine the path of the least travel cost from the source to the destination It is a key step in the process of choosing a route in complex terrains. Unlike some previous studies [13,14,15] that were based on the existing road networks, this study is based on the resistance evaluation and the shortest distances determined from raster-based analysis. The study area, data, methods, results, and conclusions are described
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