Mipela GeoSolutions have provided pre feasibility desktop study services for route selection to several of our clients.
The conceptual model uses freely available GIS datasets at a national scale across the following themes:
Projects may prioritise following existing infrastructure corridors for route selection which is achieved in the GIS model by a “weighted overlay” model (see image). This approach allows the route selection to give higher priority to existing infrastructure corridors (co location).
In most cases avoiding high potential agriculture land or National Parks would be weighted with a lower priority. Changing the parameters (eg. equal weighting vs co-location) provides multiple route options that may be compared side-by-side during preliminary selection. A Constructability Matrix indicating the number of road, rail and river crossings is also produced as part of the analysis.
For more information on GIS desktop analysis work, please contact our Client Success team on 1300 807 770.