SELECTION OF OPTIMAL PIPELINE ROUTE USING GEOGRRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Abstract

The process of selecting pipeline route is very complicated, selection of the optimal path is based on a verity of considerations (environmental and technical considerations) such as topography, geology, land use, population distribution and soil of the study area. The study area of this research is the South Kordofan. The least cost path was used to select the optimal path from the oilfield using Geographic Information System (GIS) technique. The adopted technique, i.e. building a model, successfully resulted in the least cost route for constructing the required pipeline from the oilfield (coordinates29° 19'27" E 10°36'23" N) to the destination (coordinates 29°〖59〗^' 43.8"E 12°〖42〗^' 15.4" N) which is 251 km long. This method is very useful for the performance such a task of route selection and it is recommended for implementation in other areas in Sudan where the optimal route selection is required.