A Case Study from Karbala, Iraq, of Geospatial Strategies for Optimal Asphalt Concrete Plant Placement

Having a new capital improvement facility means a significant and lasting commitment and the selection of an actual site is the key factor in success. This decision affects a wide range of undertakings including land use planning and location of industrial structures. The arrangement for asphaltic concrete plants is thus surrounded by several factors that include economic, social, technological and environmental factors. Site selection in a nutshell is the process of choosing sites that have suitable characteristics and within certain parameters to produce a good site from an operational point of view. In this study, we adopt the combination of GIS techniques and cost breakdown methods to overcome the hurdles facing choices of the most appropriate sites to establish asphaltic concrete plants. This research, undertaken in the Karbala Governorate of Iraq, systematically employs tools to map areas optimising economic, environmental and social costs. The study shows that there could be around 120 possible locations for asphaltic concrete plants, on a minimum area of 40,000 square meters. This paper takes GIS modelling and cost breakdown approaches to offer an efficient approach in determining suitable plant locations and thus serves as a useful guideline in decisions of infrastructural investments