Browsing by Author "Wickramarathne, K"

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item: Conference-Abstract
Use of GIS as an integrated tool, on selecting minimum hazard traces for new railways & highways
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2013-07) Wickramarathne, K; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Natural hazards, such as landslides, floods, cyclones, storms, coastal erosion & tsunami etc; bring catastrophic outcome on transportation infra-structure. Inundation, embankment damages, washed off, structure damages, debris fallen are the major problems on current highway and railway sector. Reconstruction of these damaged infrastructures is a burden to economy of a country. A well planned, road, railway or its infrastructures that avoids possible disaster prone areas may not subject to severe damages by the natural or manmade disasters. However, integrated modern technological strategies, such as GIS, RS etc. are not used sufficiently for disaster resilience in developing countries during the planning & design stages of roads and railways. Often, traditional strategies, such as field visits and surveys, maps and library surveys, etc. are used for this purpose. This paper is an attempt to develop a methodology to realize suitable traces for road and rail developments, against disasters, using GIS spatial analysis tool. Superimposing feature layers and its attributes, such as geomorphology, terrain, land use, areas vulnerable to inundation, landslides, cyclones etc., a GIS data base is developed. Then, by using a systematic strategy, those features and attributes are weighted accordingly its significance and estimated magnitude, using published information about disaster risk. Using these weighted, value added data; less vulnerable traces can be developed with the help of GIS spatial analysis tool. By using a VB interface this tool can be made user friendly such a way that different disaster scenarios could be evaluated. A case study of a new railway development is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed methodology
item: Conference-Abstract
Use of GIS to identify alternative traces for railway planning & development
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2012-08) Wickramarathne, K; Bandara, S; Pasindu, HR
The railway transportation is a one of the energy efficient transportation mode all around the world, as its capability of loading & transporting large amount of passengers and goods economically & safely. In the British colonial era, the railway transportation has been introduced in Sri Lanka, to transport the productions of plantations such as coffee, coco, tea, rubber, coconut, spices & etc, to the port, from up country and all around the island. With the development of new and faster roads forming in to a well connected network and introduction of efficient cars, buses and trucks, railway modal share has decreased. Today there is a need to introduced new railway lines that are faster and also forming a well connected network. Physically, the speed of a train, depend on curvature & gradient of the track. Hence it is important to identify traces that satisfy speed requirements to compete with road traffic. When developing new rail line or roads it is mandatory to consider reasonable alternatives prior to selecting the final trace. With the limited amount of maps and other resources available one cannot spend lot of time to identify possible alternatives using land and field surveys, maps & other primary surveying equipments, when the railway planning & construction phase in Sri Lanka in the past. The paper present an attempt made to use GIS tools such as Spatial Analysis, 3D Analysis, etc to identify possible alternative traces for detail studies using minimum map data available along with available satellite images.