A protocol to convert spatial polyline data to network formats and applications to world urban road networks

Abstract

The study of geographical systems as graphs, and networks has gained significant momentum in the academic literature as these systems possess measurable and relevant network properties. Crowd-based sources of data such as OpenStreetMaps (OSM) have created a wealth of worldwide geographic information including on transportation systems (e.g., road networks). In this work, we offer a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) protocol to transfer polyline data into a workable network format in the form of; a node layer, an edge layer, and a list of nodes/edges with relevant geographic information (e.g., length). Moreover, we have developed an ArcGIS tool to perform this protocol on OSM data, which we have applied to 80 urban areas in the world and made the results freely available. The tool accounts for crossover roads such as ramps and bridges. A separate tool is also made available for planar data and can be applied to any line features in ArcGIS.