Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

GIS Based Planning of Forest Road Alignment in Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala, India

S. Veeramani, V. Anoop, M. Ramesh Babu, A. P. Sunilbabu, Manu Sathyan

Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International · pp. 26–37 · Published 17 Oct 2022

10.9734/jgeesi/2022/v26i9629

Abstract

In hilly places, constructing and building forest roads requires a variety of economic and environmental criteria. To develop a solution that minimize construction, maintenance, and adverse environmental effects, road management must take into account as many alternative alignment options as they can. The idea of this research was to plan the network of forest roads in the Periyar Tiger Reserve's mountainous region using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). These techniques were applied using the study area's slope, aspect, Elevation, NDVI, drainage and susceptibility to landslides datasets. In addition, the road network created using the GIS-MCDA approach was contrasted with the existing road networks. The key elements that affect the road network in the research area were found, and the necessary maps were produced and categorized. The maps were graded using MCDA to determine the weight of both useful aspects as the next step in determining the significance and role of the aforementioned elements in the cost of road building. Second, using the Arc GIS 10.4 weighted overlay analysis tool, a forest potential map for road building was created by overlaying the weighted maps of the influencing elements. Thirdly, the competence of a map was divided into Six categories: very high, high, moderate, low, very low and Restricted roading Suitability. Finally, using a weighted overlay method to combine the road network and road planning potential map, the existing road network was analyzed. The findings of this study indicated that the majority of existing roads were located in high and moderate road Suitability. A small percentage was located in low road Suitability, which can be taken into account for alignment. These results suggested that the design of forest road planning in hilly areas can be more precisely accomplished using the multi-criteria evaluation method. Similar method as used in this study can be applied to other forested sites.

GIS MCDA forest road network planning Periyar Tiger Reserve

References (23)

  1. 1 GIS and Multicriteria Decision Analysis [DOI]
  2. 2 GIS‐based multicriteria decision analysis: a survey of the literature [DOI]
  3. 3 Solid waste disposal site selection with GIS and AHP methodology: a case study in Senirkent–Uluborlu (Isparta) Basin, Turkey [DOI]
  4. 4 Implementation of the analytical hierarchy process with VBA in ArcGIS [DOI]
  5. 5 Fire risk evaluation using multicriteria analysis—a case study [DOI]
  6. 6 Multi-criteria selection of electric power plants using analytical hierarchy process [DOI]
  7. 7 Evaluation methodologies for technology selection [DOI]
  8. 8 A multiple criteria approach for the evaluation of the rail transit networks in Istanbul [DOI]
  9. 9 Functional forest road network planning by consideration of environmental impact assessment for wood harvesting [DOI]
  10. 10 Minimizing total costs of forest roads with computer-aided design model [DOI]
  11. 11 Preliminary Planning of Road Systems Using Digital Terrain Models [DOI]
  12. 12 The Analytic Hierarchy Process: A Tutorial for Use in Prioritizing Forest Road Investments to Minimize Environmental Effects [DOI]
  13. 13 Analysis of an existing forest road network
  14. 14 An Application of a Heuristic Network Algorithm to Cable Logging Layout Design [DOI]
  15. 15 Tabu search optimization of horizontal and vertical alignments of forest roads [DOI]
  16. 16 Planning road network in mountain forests using GIS and Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP)
  17. 17 Route planning for harvest site access [DOI]
  18. 18 MULTI-OBJECTIVE FOREST PLANNING Managing Forest Ecosystems
  19. 19 Finding optimal routes for networks of harvest site access roads using GIS-based techniques [DOI]
  20. 20 A Method for Assessing Landslide Potential as an Aid in Forest Road Placement
  21. 21 Uncertainty Analysis of Routed Outflow in Rockfill Dams
  22. 22 Determining proper method of preliminary forecasting of mountain and forest roads using GIS
  23. 23 Relative slope stability and land-use planning in the San Francisco Bay region, California [DOI]

Cited by 7

Developing a MATLAB GUI based application for optimal forest road route based on landslide susceptibility maps

Fatih Kadi · Advances in Space Research · 2025

A Study On Measuring An Objective Aspect Score In Forestry Analysis: Example Of Forest Roads And Landslide Areas

Taha Yasin HATAY, Zübeyir ÖZCAN, Selçuk GÜMÜŞ · 2023

Route Alignment Selection and Planning for Ganga Express Way from Meerut to Prayagraj Region Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Techniques with Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing Techniques

Praveen Kumar NIRALA, Mukesh KUMAR, Pitam SINGH · Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies · 2025

Showing 3 of 7 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

6

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

7

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.