Prioritizing Trail Bridge Construction Projects in Nepal Using Linear Discriminant Analysis

DOI

https://www.doi.org/10.59256/ijire.20240503025

Published In

Volume 5, Issue 3 (2024)

Published Online

May-June 2024

Pages

203-208

Article Type

Research Article

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Abstract: The country of Nepal desperately requires trail bridges to foster rural connectivity and socio-economic progress especially in the remote areas. However, despite their significance, political meddling among other socio-economic factors has continuously influenced bridge construction priorities resulting in a non-uniform distribution that does not always match key indicators like population density, disadvantaged population or number fatalities due to river crossing. This report identifies Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) as an objective and fair approach for prioritizing bridge projects. This research will provide a structured way of ranking these bridges with reduced political influence and consequently decreasing social disparities through focusing on such criteria as benefiting homes, total population, disadvantaged population, time saved, type of rivers and risk factor. Trail bridges were in history demanded by Nepal since 1950s in a bid to receive international aid and community-based construction. The participation of the communities in the planning, designing and maintenance of these bridges has increased over time thus promoting sustainability and ownership. However, there are still challenges that remain to ensure equitable distribution of bridge projects that adequately address the needs of the most marginalized groups. Through LDA application, this research demonstrates how priority classes can be effectively separated to objectively determine areas with urgent need for bridge constructions by decision makers. From the analysis it is clear that bridges can be ranked by using socio-economic or geographical data that is quantifiable in order to promote fair infrastructure development. The nexus between traditional knowledge and modern analysis techniques toward sustainable equitable infrastructural development in Nepal cannot be overemphasized by the findings from this study. This. therefore, strengthens rural community resilience while also ensuring resources are distributed based on objective requirements but not political or socio-economic influences.