An algorithm based on the weighted network voronoi diagram for point cluster simplification

Abstract

Points on maps that stand for geographic objects such as settlements are generally connected by road networks. However, in the existing algorithms for point cluster simplification, points are usually viewed as discrete objects or their distances are considered in Euclidean spaces, and therefore the point cluster generalization results obtained by these algorithms are sometimes unreasonable. To take roads into consideration so that point clusters can be simplified in appropriate ways, the network Voronoi diagram is used and a new algorithm is proposed in this paper. First, the weighted network Voronoi diagram is constructed taking into account the weights of the points and the properties of the related road segments. Second, the network Voronoi polygons are generated and two factors (i.e., the area of the network Voronoi polygon and the total length of the dilated road segments in the polygon) are considered as the basis for point simplification. Last, a Cartesian coordinate system is built based on the two factors and the point clusters are simplified by means of the “concentric quadrants”. Our experiments show that the algorithm can effectively and correctly transmit types of information in the process of point cluster simplification, and the results are more reasonable than that generated by the ordinary Voronoi-based algorithm and the weighted Voronoi-based algorithm.