Automated recognition of regular, radial and ring structures in the configuration of a street-road network of settlements

Abstract

The article describes the experience of applying various approaches to the recognition of some of the most common settlements planning structures, which include radial, regular and ring elements. At the first stage, it is necessary to identify typical properties and elements of the corresponding figures, then find a way to automate the search for such entities in an arbitrary road network of a settlement. To solve the second problem, well-known algorithms are used that are associated with the analysis of the uniformity of the shape of neighborhoods of a settlement. Modifications of the algorithm for searching for radial structural elements are proposed, and the author’s method of detecting ring elements is tested. The selected approaches are implemented in the form of a script in the Python programming language, which sequentially checks the road network given to the input for the presence of lattice or radial-ring planning structure elements. The technique was tested in fifty cities of the world. Verification of the results was carried out by comparing the response of the algorithm with the expert opinion of the research authors or literature on the topic. The accuracy of the classification was 80 %. The algorithm successfully coped with the reference examples of layouts, but experienced difficulties with their modifications, associated, for example, with the lack of closure of the ring elements of the radial-ring structure. The results can be demanded in problems of cartographic generalization, which require recognition and preservation of typical features of spatial objects.