ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT OF RAILWAYS USING DELPHI TECHNIQUE AND FUZZY TOPSIS - CASE STUDY: ISFAHAN-SHIRAZ RAILWAY IN IRAN

With escalating population growth and subsequent transportation demand, the need for railways is increasing. Although transportation infrastructures have recently been by number improved, the quality has not met health and safety standards, which leads to social resistance against them. A strategy for enhancing the acceptance of such projects among both local people and governmental authorities is to guarantee the minimization of consequent adverse impacts. To achieve this goal, one approach can be applying precautionary measures, identified through risk assessment before implementation. This research aims at identification of risk factors and their environmental risks along the Isfahan-Shiraz railway. To do so, various factors were selected and utilized after examining different methods for Railroads risk assessment and integrating them to cover all objectives. Initially, study zone was divided into 4 zones based on specific environmental and socio-economic criteria. After reviewing related scientific literature, following techniques were then applied: Questionnaire for identifying risk factors, Delphi to sieve the risk factors, and finally FTOPSIS in order to prioritize the zones in accordance with environmental risks along the path. Results show zone 3 has the highest environmental risk followed by zones 4, 2 and 1. It was deducted that the highest environmental risks were in zones 3 and 1 because of disturbances for settlers in the vicinity of the railroad via noise pollution and also in zones 2 and 4 due to interference and misbalance in habitats again via noise pollution. According to the results, it seems mentioned methods enable managers to present managerial plans and prioritize controlling and mitigation measures.