OPTIMIZING BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR LOW-VOLUME ROADS THROUGH THE AHP-TOPSIS APPROACH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55766/sujst12625Keywords:
Multi - Criteria Decision Making, Budget allocation, Rural Road Network, Strategic Policy, IRIAbstract
Rural road maintenance prioritization under constrained public budgets requires balancing engineering condition, economic efficiency, and strategic policy objectives. Conventional benefit-cost (B/C) analysis provides an economically grounded framework but may emphasize high-traffic corridors while considering accessibility and regional distribution. This study developed and empirically evaluated an integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (AHP-TOPSIS) framework to support multi-criteria prioritization of rural road maintenance. Using 724 one-kilometer road sections across eight regional bureaus of Thailand’s Department of Rural Roads, expert-derived criteria weights were obtained through AHP with verified consistency (CR < 0.10) and incorporated into a TOPSIS-based ranking procedure. Comparative validation was conducted against historical allocation practices and conventional B/C prioritization under identical budget constraints. Our results indicate that the AHP-TOPSIS framework achieves comparable aggregate pavement performance, reduces inter-regional variability in post-maintenance International Roughness Index (IRI), and expands total maintenance coverage by 7.4% within the same fiscal envelope. Investment distribution across national strategic categories is more balanced under the multi-criteria framework, reflecting closer alignment with policy goals. These findings demonstrate that structured multi-criteria decision synthesis can provide a transparent and policy-explicit complement to traditional economic evaluation in large-scale rural road maintenance planning.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Pawarotorn Chaipetch, Chisanu Amprayn, Warisara Lertpaitoonpan
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