Abstract
This chapter demonstrates a software that finally makes urban reachability analysis free, open-source, and usable for non-technical urban analysts. We aim to provide researchers with a highly-parametric API (Application Programming Interface) for creating isochrones worldwide, meeting various scenario requirements with high accuracy. We start with OpenStreetMap road data that the software cleans by applying a sub-graph algorithm, removing isolated road links. This results in a fully-connected network for isochrones calculation, improving the web API stability. Then, a non-recursive breadth-first-search algorithm runs in parallel to generate isochrone links. The isochrone s are then constructed using either link buffers or concave hulls to meet various accuracy requirements. The final outputs, including isochrones polygons, lines, and nodes with traverse distance attributes, can be exported in popular formats. The API supports thousands of isochrone calculations simultaneously, and is fully accessible online. The source code will also be provided for free for anyone to take and modify.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Bauer, V., Gamper, J., Loperfido, R., Profanter, S., Putzer, S., & Timko, I. (2008). Computing isochrones in multi-modal, schedule-based transport networks. In Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (p. 78). ACM.
Buchhold, V. (2015). Fast Computation of Isochrones in Road Networks. Master Thesis. https://i11www.iti.uni-karlsruhe.de/_media/teaching/theses/ma-buchhold-15.pdf. Accessed August 18, 2016.
Efentakis, A., Grivas, N., Lamprianidis, G., Magenschab, G., & Pfoser, D. (2013). Isochrones, traffic and DEMOgraphics. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (pp. 548–551). ACM.
ESRI. (2016). Service Area Analysis of ArcGIS Network Analyst extension. https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/extensions/network-analyst/service-area.htm. Accessed September 20, 2016.
Gamper, J., Böhlen, M., Cometti, W., & Innerebner, M. (2011). Defining isochrones in multimodal spatial networks. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (pp. 2381–2384). ACM.
Gamper, J., Böhlen, M., Cometti, W., & Innerebner, M. (2012). Scalable computation of isochrones with network expiration. In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management (pp 526–543). Springer.
HERE. (2016). Calculate Isoline, Routing API. https://developer.here.com/rest-apis/documentation/routing/topics/examples-calculate-isoline.html. Accessed September 20, 2016.
Innerebner, M., Böhlen, M., & Gamper, J. (2013, April). ISOGA: A system for geographical reachability analysis. In International Symposium on Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems (pp. 180–189). Heidelberg: Springer.
Iso4App. (2016). Iso4App JavaScript API. http://www.iso4app.net/#engine. Accessed September 15, 2016.
Marciuska, S., & Gamper, J. (2010). Determining objects within isochrones in spatial network databases. In East European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (pp. 392–405). Heidelberg: Springer.
OSM. (2016). Definitions for OpenStreetMap highway keys. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway. Accessed November 8, 2016.
pgRouting Manual. (2016). Description of pgr_labelgraph() function. http://docs.pgrouting.org/2.2/en/src/label_graph/doc/pgr_labelGraph.html. Accessed November 8, 2016.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chen, Y., Rajabifard, A., Day, J. (2017). An Advanced Web API for Isochrones Calculation Using OpenStreetMap Data. In: Geertman, S., Allan, A., Pettit, C., Stillwell, J. (eds) Planning Support Science for Smarter Urban Futures. CUPUM 2017. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57819-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57819-4_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57818-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57819-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)