A three-phase approach and a fast algorithm to compute efficient corridors within GIS framework

The paper introduces a three-phase approach based on a coupling between a geographical information system (GIS) and multicriteria evaluation and devoted to handle bi-objective corridor siting problems. The corridors are evaluated on two criteria: (i) a quantitative criterion (such as length), and (ii) a qualitative criterion measuring the quality of a corridor with respect to the suitability of crossing its component polygons. To identify the efficient corridors, we designed a very fast algorithm that exploits the qualitative dimension (suitability) of each polygon in order to identify a set of efficient corridors with different suitability levels. The proposed approach and algorithm are validated through the development of a prototype and illustrated on a real-world instance application. The paper also discusses the behavior of the algorithm with large datasets.