Use of GIS for selection of optimal route for water pipelines in hill areas

Water supply lines constitute the most important network for the human being. With the increase in population, the demand for water is continuously increasing. To supply water from a source to different locations, an efficient routing of water supply pipelines is needed. In hill areas, deciding the route of water supply pipelines is a complex and highly individualistic problem because of the involvement of many locational and topographical factors. The present study focuses on identifying the factors affecting the route of water supply pipelines in a hill area. A comprehensive list of thirteen factors affecting pipeline route from the reported literature was prepared. The analytic hierarchy process was used for deciding their relative importance. The elevation was identified with the highest importance followed by the main factors slope, aspect, and land use land cover. The GIS-based methodology was developed for the consideration of factors affecting the water supply pipeline route and their relative importance in the selection of an optimal route using Dijkstra’s algorithm. The developed methodology was implemented by taking a case study, and an optimal route for the water supply pipeline between the two locations was decided. The identified pipeline route is environment-friendly due to the minimum disturbance to the surroundings.