Tulu, Besha (PhD)Hiwot, Yitayew2020-11-242023-11-282020-11-242023-11-282020-10http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/23491Road network connectivity improves socio-economic development and functionality as well as quality of life through enabling sustained and all-inclusive growth. It also enhances mobility of people and goods providing access to market - value chain and services on top of creating an opportunity to discover our most valued resources such as land. However, practical aspects of road network optimization require designing best route alignment selection. Usually, route alignment selection is governed by many factors. Multi-criteria decision analysis is well adopted method that considers the effect of various factors such as engineering, social, economic and environmental factors on route planning. The aim of this study is to use a multi-criteria approach specifically Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) pairwise compression analysis for route planning that connects Dabat and Keraker towns located in northern region of Ethiopia. The operations to select the least cost route depend on the effective collection, processing, storing and analysis of spatial data such as slope, drainage, land use, soil type, geology, existed road and drainage. The weight overlay analysis was considering seven factors that affect route planning. The value of the factor is unique because of distinctiveness of geographic, socio-economic, and environmental situations of the study area. The results suggest that the first governing factor for the route selection in the study area is slope. While fault and soil are the second and third most governing factors for the road alignment selection, respectively. The length of the proposed route is 65 km compared to the existing road of 90 km length. The new alignment is 34 km shorter than the existing road, implying the novelty of the multi criteria approach.en-USRoute selectionMulti-Criteria Decision Approachfactors governing route selectionThesis