Using interpretative structure model and analytical network process for optimum site selection of airport locations in Delta Egypt

Airports are among the constructions that must meet international standards and specifications established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Some of these parameters and criteria include topography, environmental, and operating circumstances. Navigation operations are also affected by terrain and human barriers, while noise, infrastructure, and weather factors affect the environment around airports. This article investigates using the interpretative structure model (ISM) and analytical network process (ANP) together as a new technique to select and determine the optimum site selection for constructing new international airports in the Nile Delta, Egypt. The criteria used (16 international criteria) are selected depending on the standards of the ICAO, field surveys, and previous studies. Nile Delta, Egypt, is chosen as a case study because it suffers from the lack of international airports and has a population of approximately 23 million. Therefore, new international airports must be established to serve this region, boost tourism, improve transportation, and stimulate commercial traffic. The results using the suggested new technique are compared with the traditional used methods for site selection, such as fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process. Landsat 8 images are used in this research. A quality test using the area under the curve and the receiver operating characteristic curve was applied to evaluate the new technique for site selection of international airports, depending on calculating the highest suitability index for each proposed site. From the quality tests, it is deduced that the suggested method (ISM–ANP) for airport site selection is more accurate than any other traditional method. ArcGIS 10.5 software is used to draw the final digital maps containing the proposed resulted sites. As a result, three new locations for the construction of international airports were found and selected throughout the research region (Delta Nile, Egypt) based on the used mathematical models. Therefore, the proposed novel method for determining the locations of international airports is thought to be effective and feasible, and it can be used to determine the locations of any development projects in general, particularly in developing countries, which benefits the decision-makers in making the right decisions.