International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 9 No.22 (2014) pp. 5513-5517 © Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm Traffic Impact Assessment of Mrts In A Gis Platform Anitha Selva Sofia S.D. 1 , R.Harish* 2 , R. Saraswathy 3 1 Assistant Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, SNS College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. 2 *Corresponding Author, Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering, Bharath University, Chennai 73, harish.civil@bharathuniv.ac.in 3 Assistant Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Tagore Engineering College, Chennai, Tamilnadu. Abstract: Traffic Impact Studies (TIS) are needed due to the increasing levels of congestion in growing areas, particularly those that are located within the boundaries of large urban areas. In an attempt to control unplanned growth and unmanageable loads of traffic, traffic impact studies became a requirement to examine whether the rail network surrounding a proposed development will be able to handle the additional traffic while still offering acceptable levels of service. The TIS is a part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of the proposed development. The main objective of this study is to find the changes in the land use pattern using multi-temporal data, to analyze the factors that affect the traffic flow of the MRTS in each station and to identify the new rail corridor between velachery and St.ThomasMount. The IRS and the IKONOS PAN data are obtained for the years 1996 and 2006, and the geometric correction is done. The land use maps are prepared from the obtained satellite data for the years 1996 and 2006. The land use maps were overlaid to find the changes in the land use between the two years. The changes in the type of land use are obtained from the GIS overlay analysis. The accessibility of each MRTS station to the bus stop is also analyzed and correlated with the present number of passengers using the station. The possibility of connecting the roads having more traffic capacity between velachery and St.Thomas Mount to determine a new route using the GIS based heuristic algorithm has been explored. The built up lands and the type of soil also considered in finalizing the route. The details of the new route are given in the paper. KEY WORDS: IKONOS pan, IRS pan, MRTS, TIS. Introduction The impact assessment is a systematic, well- documented and multi-disciplinary procedure, where we identify, describe and assess the direct and indirect effects of a project or an activity on different environmental factors (land use, land cost, water potential) [1]. Preparation of impact assessment report involves 2 main tasks [2]. One is to manage huge and diverse nature of database (spatial, non-spatial, discrete, continuous and temporal) and the other is to make final interpretation based on these data, which by most of the conventional method is very subjective [3]. Benefits of using GIS for impact assessment are,  GIS are unique in its capability to capture, store and manage spatially reference data.  Spatial operations of GIS supplements the traditional map-based modeling and it derives model dependent parameters (area computation, length measurement, nearest distance determination, etc).  GIS has the ability to present the analysis result in map output form. Production of cartographic quality maps is very much effective in pursuing the effect of different changes taking place due to the activities of the implemented project. It also facilitates the good presentation and better understanding of the resultant impacts particularly to the non-technical decision makers, who really dominate the decision making process. Study Area The study area comprises of the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) alignment starting from Egmore up to Velachery and the proposed alignment between Velachery and St.Thomas Mount [10]. It lies between the longitude of 80°10’00E to 80°15’00”E