A Policy-driven Framework for Identifying and Ranking Strategic Transport and Urban Corridors
This study presents a decision-support framework for identifying and prioritising transport and urban corridors across Africa, built around a “policy-first” approach to guide sustainable and resilient investment. It combines geospatial analysis, connectivity modelling based on circuit theory, and multi-criteria decision-making to map corridors using global datasets like the Global Human Settlement Layer. Corridors are then evaluated across policy scenarios — including green transition, digitalisation, and economic development — using two ranking methods (SAW and TOPSIS) within a GIS environment. The framework operates at two scales: a continental analysis of 55 corridors, followed by detailed assessment of 11 sub-corridors at a 5×5 km grid resolution. Beyond Africa, the approach is designed to be transferable, supported by a standards-based domain model that ensures interoperability and transparency across different regions and contexts.