Spatial decision support system for the selection of an overhead electrical transmission line corridor.

Abstract

This dissertation presents research into the possibility of using GIS Spatial Analysis and Multi-Criteria Decision Making to determine a corridor for electric overhead transmission power line routing. The research described in this dissertation examines the feasibility of developing a spatial decision support system to select an overhead transmission line corridor. This support system could also be used to perform scenario analysis. The selection model evaluates multiple environmental, ecological, electrical, aesthetic, engineering and socio-economic criteria spatially. Each criterion is weighted using a pair-wise comparison and is presented as a GIS layer. A suitability map is derived from the weighted layers using a weighted linear combination. A least cost path that represents the corridor most likely to contain the optimum route for an overhead electrical transmission line is derived from the suitability map.