Measuring the Structure of Road Networks

Abstract

Spatial networks display both topologic and geometric variations in their structure. This study investigates the measurement of a road network structure. Existing measures of heterogeneity, connectivity, accessibility, and interconnectivity are reviewed and three supplemental measures are proposed, including measures of entropy, connection patterns, and continuity. The proposed measures were applied to 16 test networks, which were derived from four idealized base networks: 901, 451, 301, and completely connected. The results show that the differentiated structures of road networks can be evaluated by the measure of entropy; predefined connection patterns of arterial roads can be identified and quantified by the measures of ringness, webness, beltness, circuitness, and treeness. A measure of continuity evaluates the quality of a network from the perspective of travelers. Proposed measures could be used to describe the structural attributes of complicated road networks quantitatively, to compare different network structures, and to explore the structural evolution of networks in the spatial and temporal context. These measures can find application in urban planning and transportation practice.

Application of graph theory to the morphological analysis of settlements

“…Mathematical models formulated on the basis of graph theory make a description of structure elements possible, as well as the identification of more complicated relations between them (Tinkler 1977;Öre 1990;Runge 2006). In social economic geography graph methods, as yet, were applied to (Haggett, Chorley 1969;Harary 1969;Taylor 1974;Tinkler 1977;Hage 1979;Gross, yellen 1999;Arlinghaus et al 2002;Beineke, Wilson 2004;Runge 2006;Jażdżewska 2008;Newman 2010): -studies of the structure of transport systems (Kansky 1963;Garrison 1968;James et al 1970;Taylor 1975;Ratajczak 1980;Ducruet, Lugo 2013) or street networks (Porta et al 2006;Xie, Levinson 2007;2011); -delimitation of nodal regions (Nystuen, Dacey 1968); -defining relative significance of subspace in the hierarchical system of geographical space and creating hierarchies (Doi 1969); -modeling of processes of innovation diffusion (Łoboda 1973); -researching the structure balance in social geography (Harary 1970); -historical geography (Jażdżewska 2008); -settlement geography in researching settlement networks and systems (Haggett 1965;zagożdżon 1970;Golachowski et al 1974;Miszewska 1976;Moriconi-Ebrard 1993;Jażdżewska 2008), hierarchical ordering of settlements (Maik, 1977;Jażdżewska, 2008), and the morphology of settlements …”

Network structure and metropolitan mobility

“…Network structure comprises scale, topology, hierarchy, and morphology, including the layout (arrangement and connectivity) of the network and characteristics of individual elements (Kissling 1969;Xie and Levinson 2007). Borchert (1961) conducted one of the earliest studies on this topic, using network measures to understand metropolitan settlement patterns.…”

“…Gu et al (2012) developed indicators of network structure to understand the overall characteristics and the spatial structure of the Chinese railway network. Xie and Levinson (2007) developed complementary measures of network structure to better understand and quantify the structural attributes of complicated road networks. e measures of network structure were initially developed using idealized test networks and later applied to the Swiss road networks to trace the changes in network characteristics over time (Erath et al 2009).…”

Analysis of community properties and node properties to understand the structure of the bus transport network

“…Since a community corresponds to a sub-network, it is possible that different types of network topologies will characterize the different communities of a single network [25,26]. An overview of the basic network topologies (Fig.…”