A Recognition Method of Ring Pattern in Road Networks Based on Graph Theory

Abstract

As a kind of typical structural knowledge, the spatial pattern is important to cartographic generalization, multi-scale representation, and spatial data matching. In an urban road network, the global ring is a common pattern, which represents a closed, circular ring that surrounds the city center. To overcome the deficiency in multi rings recognition, a two-step method for global ring patterns is developed in this paper. Preliminary rings are extracted based on the angle and deflection side of the connected road segments. Moreover, global rings are selected from the preliminary rings based on the index of compactness. Simulated and actual road network data are used to validate the proposed algorithm. The results show that the proposed algorithm is capable of recognizing global rings with multi-layer conditions in urban road networks.