Adding the third dimension to urban networks for electric mobility simulation: An example for the city of porto

Abstract

Elevation data is important for precise electric vehicle simulation. However, traffic simulators are often strictly two-dimensional and do not offer the capability of modelling urban networks taking elevation into account. In particular, SUMO-Simulation of Urban Mobility, a popular microscopic traffic simulation platform, relies on urban networks previously modelled with elevation data in order to use this information during simulations. This work tackles the problem of how to add this elevation data to urban network models-in particular for the case of the Porto urban network, in Portugal. With this goal in mind, a comparison between altitude information retrieval approaches is made and a tool to annotate network models with altitude data is proposed. This paper starts by describing the methodological approach followed to develop the work, then describing and analysing its main findings, including an in-depth explanation of the proposed tool.