Spatial network analysis software

Last updated September 17, 2023

Spatial network analysis software packages are analytic software used to prepare graph-based analysis of spatial networks. They stem from research fields in transportation, architecture, and urban planning. The earliest examples of such software include the work of Garrison (1962), Kansky (1963), Levin (1964), Harary (1969), Rittel (1967), Tabor (1970) and others in the 1960s and 70s. Specific packages address their domain-specific needs, including TransCAD for transportation, GIS for planning and geography, and Axman for Space syntax researchers.

Packages

Many packages are available. Many were developed in academia and are freely available or freely available for academic research.

In historical order:

Axman – The (near) original developed by Nick Sheep Dalton of UCL to perform axial line analysis on computers running Mac OS, currently used in more than 50 countries. This spawned offshoots such as Pesh (for the analysis of convex space networks) and SpaceBox (for the analysis of 'all-line' axial maps).^[1]
Spatialist – Developed at Georgia Institute of Technology to implement theoretical innovations principally introduced by John Peponis. This software plugs into the MicroStation CAD package to analyse networks of automatically generated 'e-spaces' and 's-spaces'.^[2]
Axwoman 1 – Written by Bin Jiang while at UCL. It is a tool to perform axial analysis as a plug-in to ESRI products.^[3]
Axwoman 6.2+ – Evolved from Axwoman 1.0 and research by Bin Jiang and his team. Axwoman 6.2 is a free plug-in to ArcMap 10, combined with AxialGen in one installer. Featured functionality includes automatically generating natural streets and axial lines from OpenStreetMap data. The website also contains tutorials.^[4]
Depthmap – Developed by Alasdair Turner of UCL. This software initially generated isovists and performed visibility graph analysis of building systems on computers running Windows. It evolved to include automatic generation of axial line networks and analysis of axial line networks and road segment line networks at anything up to the level of the US or Europe.^[5]
OmniVista – Developed by Nick Sheep Dalton and Ruth Conroy Dalton. It performs a range of isovist measures on Mac OS computers.
Fathom – Commercial implementation of visibility graph analysis written by Intelligent Space Partnership.^[6]
Mindwalk – Developed by Lucas Figueiredo, This software performs spatial analysis over standard axial maps and new continuity maps. It is written in Java and runs on several platforms. It is also known as xSpace. Mindwalk has been used as a research and teaching tool since 2002. It is distributed worldwide for academic and non-commercial purposes.^[7]
Isovist Analyst – Written by Sanjay Rana while at UCL. This program creates isovists from building plans as a plug-in to ESRI products.^[8]
Ajanachara – Open source software developed by Gerald Franz at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. It performs visibility graph analysis of 3D Studio Max and VRML models.^[9]
Webmap – developed by N. S. Dalton at UCL. Software is free to use (although it requires registration). It allows users to analyse axial maps through a web browser interface.^[10]
Confeego – Developed by Space Syntax Limited,^[11] but available free for academic use. It plugs directly into MapInfo Professional to analyse line axial networks.^[12]
AJAX – Written by Mike Batty of UCL. It performs both traditional axial network analysis (Batty: primal analysis), and point-based visibility analysis introduced by Bin Jiang (Batty: dual analysis). In a recent paper, Batty showed the mathematical relationship between the two analyses.^[13]
OverView – plug-in to AutoCad by Christian Derix for Aedas Architects in collaboration with the Center for Evolutionary Computing in Architecture CECA.^[14] Allows architects to do quick visual integration mapping via isovist analysis. Can analyse non-planar environments to take volumes and hilly sites into account.
AXess – Written by Jennifer Brisbane at the City University of New York. It offers a context menu tool for ArcGIS 9.x that calculates connectivity, control, mean depth, global integration, and local integration for all nodes in an axial line layer.^[15]
Webmap-At-Home – Written by Nick Sheep Dalton at Open University. It is a Java implementation of the original Axman program with extra features. It is a platform neutral full application capable of reading DXF files and the original Axman binary format.^[16]
AxialGen – Written by Bin Jiang and Xintao Liu at the University of Gävle, Sweden. It is a plugin to ArcGIS 9.2 that automatically generates axial lines for a complex polygon with holes.^[17]
Layout-iQ – Used in healthcare, manufacturing, banking, retail, and office space. It evaluates the frequency of flow in a workspace and measures the total minimum travel distance for resources to navigate the workspace. The software integrates CAD drawings with a diagram of flow between points.^[18]
Urban Network Analysis Toolbox for ArcGIS – A free, open-source package developed by the City Form Lab.^[19] It can be used to compute five types of graph centrality measures on spatial networks: Reach; Gravity; Betweenness; Closeness; and Straightness. The tools incorporate three important features that make them particularly suited for spatial analysis on urban street networks. First, they can account for both geometry and topology in input networks, using either metric distance (e.g. Meters) or topological distance (e.g. Turns) as impedance factors. Unlike previous software tools that operate with two network elements (nodes and edges), UNA tools include a third network element – buildings – that are used as the spatial units of analysis for all measures. Two neighboring buildings on the same street segments can therefore obtain different accessibility results. UNA tools optionally allow buildings to be weighted according to their particular characteristics – e.g., volume, population. More important buildings can be specified to have a stronger effect on the analysis outcomes, yielding more accurate and reliable results. The toolbox is built for easy scaling – it is equally suited for small-scale, detailed network analysis of dense urban areas and for sparser large-scale regional networks.^[20] The toolbox requires ArcGIS 10^[21] software with an ArcGIS Network Analyst Extension.^[22]
Urban Network Analysis Plugin for Rhinoceros3D – Free for both academic and commercial use.^[23] It was developed by the City Form Lab. The Rhino UNA Toolbox can be used to compute five types of graph centrality measures on spatial networks: Reach; Gravity; Betweenness; Closeness; and Straightness. The toolbox includes other spatial analysis tools, such as Closest Facility, Alternative Routes finding, pedestrian flow modeling along shortest or redundant paths, facility patronage estimation, spatial distribution of origins weights along routes etc. The tool allows users to specify which origins and destinations to use in the analysis and allows the users to weight the analysis with specific attributes of each origin and destination. The toolbox was developed to make spatial network analysis tools available to architects, designers and planners who do not have access to GIS and typically work on designs in Rhino. Having UNA metrics in Rhino, allows one to analyze how a specific spatial network performs, and to incorporate the analysis into a fast and iterative design process, where networks can be designed, evaluated and redesigned in seamless cycles. The UNA Rhino toolbox is significantly faster than its GIS counterpart, which has been available as a plugin for ArcGIS since 2012. Users have an ability to rapidly create and edit networks from any Rhino curve objects, making network design and redesign simple and intuitive. The analytic options available to the user have expanded, providing more precise control to analyze exactly what you need for every unique spatial network problem. The toolbox requires Rhinoceros version 5 software as of SR 10 or later.^[24]
SSA Plugin – Written by Burak Beyhan at Mersin University. Space Syntax Analysis (SSA) Plugin is operational on free and open source software for GIS (FOSS4GIS) including OpenJUMP, gvSIG, OrbisGIS, QGIS, OpenEV, Thuban, MapWindow GIS, SAGA, and R Project. SSA Plugin calculates the standard space syntax measures including connectivity, total depth, mean depth, global integration, local depth, local integration and control values for each feature involved in a spatial configuration, and intelligibility value for the whole of the configuration. Users can export an adjusted graph to an external file in a Social Network Analysis (SNA) file format for further analysis of the spatial configuration concerned in the respective software environment.^[25]
depthmapX – Developed by the depthmapX development team. It is an open source multi-platform spatial network analyses package based on the original Depthmap. It can generate isovists and perform visibility graph analysis of building systems on computers running Mac OS X, Windows and Linux, it includes automatic generation of axial line networks and analysis of axial line networks and road segment line networks. depthmapX is based on Qt framework.^[26]
Spatial Design Network Analysis (sDNA 3D) – Since 2011, it has been developed by Alain Chiaradia, Crispin Coop[er and Chris Webster at Cardiff University and University of Hong Kong. It is a free tool that unifies the use of spatial network analysis in design and research. Plugins are provided for Autocad (for designers), ArcGIS, open source QGIS (for analysts & designers) and as a standalone Python version that works on 2D or 3D shapefiles enabling use in other GIS software and custom projects. sDNA standardizes on the network link as a unit of analysis, and computes a wide variety of closeness, betweenness, severance and efficiency measures. sDNA works with 3D topography and 3D multilevel environment. Analyses and Radius can use Euclidean, angular, topological or custom distance metrics, and link, length or custom weightings. In Angular analysis mode sDNA computes cumulative angular change along the link and angular change at junction resulting in angular geodesic.^[27]
CASOS ORA – Developed by Dr. Kathleen M. Carley and the joint Carnegie Mellon University and Netanomics team. It is tools that support social and spatial network analysis. It is interoperable with other spatial analysis tools such as ARCGIS. See also Dynamic Network Analysis.^[28]
Isovist_2-3 – Free software for Mac and PC that provides advanced, real-time, high definition isovist point, path and field analysis in architectural plan and section drawings. The software also includes several Space Syntax analysis tools for calculating high definition Integration, Mean Metric Depth, and Mean Angular Depth fields.^[29]

Related Research Articles

A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database, however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.

Esri is an American multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company. It is best known for its ArcGIS products. With a 40% market share, Esri is the world's leading supplier of GIS software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications.

The term space syntax encompasses a set of theories and techniques for the analysis of spatial configurations. It was conceived by Bill Hillier, Julienne Hanson, and colleagues at The Bartlett, University College London in the late 1970s to early 1980s to develop insights into the mutually constructive relation between society and space. As space syntax has evolved, certain measures have been found to correlate with human spatial behavior, and space syntax has thus come to be used to forecast likely effects of architectural and urban space on users.

A GIS file format is a standard for encoding geographical information into a computer file, as a specialized type of file format for use in geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial applications. Since the 1970s, dozens of formats have been created based on various data models for various purposes. They have been created by government mapping agencies, GIS software vendors, standards bodies such as the Open Geospatial Consortium, informal user communities, and even individual developers.

A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, pipelines, aqueducts, and power lines. The digital representation of these networks, and the methods for their analysis, is a core part of spatial analysis, geographic information systems, public utilities, and transport engineering. Network analysis is an application of the theories and algorithms of graph theory and is a form of proximity analysis.

In architecture, visibility graph analysis (VGA) is a method of analysing the inter-visibility connections within buildings or urban networks. Visibility graph analysis was developed from the architectural theory of space syntax by Turner et al. (2001), and is applied through the construction of a visibility graph within the open space of a plan.

A spatial network is a graph in which the vertices or edges are spatial elements associated with geometric objects, i.e., the nodes are located in a space equipped with a certain metric. The simplest mathematical realization of spatial network is a lattice or a random geometric graph, where nodes are distributed uniformly at random over a two-dimensional plane; a pair of nodes are connected if the Euclidean distance is smaller than a given neighborhood radius. Transportation and mobility networks, Internet, mobile phone networks, power grids, social and contact networks and biological neural networks are all examples where the underlying space is relevant and where the graph's topology alone does not contain all the information. Characterizing and understanding the structure, resilience and the evolution of spatial networks is crucial for many different fields ranging from urbanism to epidemiology.

A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.

ArcSDE is a server-software sub-system that aims to enable the usage of Relational Database Management Systems for spatial data. The spatial data may then be used as part of a geodatabase.

ArcGIS is a family of client, server and online geographic information system (GIS) software developed and maintained by Esri. ArcGIS was first released in 1999 and originally was released as ARC/INFO, a command line based GIS system for manipulating data. ARC/INFO was later merged into ArcGIS Desktop, which was eventually superseded by ArcGIS Pro in 2015. ArcGIS Pro works in 2D and 3D for cartography and visualization, and includes machine learning (ML).

ArcInfo is a full-featured geographic information system produced by Esri, and is the highest level of licensing in the ArcGIS Desktop product line. It was originally a command-line based system. The command-line processing abilities are now available through the GUI of the ArcGIS Desktop product.

A spatial database is a general-purpose database that has been enhanced to include spatial data that represents objects defined in a geometric space, along with tools for querying and analyzing such data. Most spatial databases allow the representation of simple geometric objects such as points, lines and polygons. Some spatial databases handle more complex structures such as 3D objects, topological coverages, linear networks, and triangulated irregular networks (TINs). While typical databases have developed to manage various numeric and character types of data, such databases require additional functionality to process spatial data types efficiently, and developers have often added geometry or feature data types. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) developed the Simple Features specification and sets standards for adding spatial functionality to database systems. The SQL/MM Spatial ISO/IEC standard is a part of the SQL/MM multimedia standard and extends the Simple Features standard with data types that support circular interpolations. Almost all current relational and object-relational database management systems now have spatial extensions, and some GIS software vendors have developed their own spatial extensions to database management systems.

Geomorphometry, or geomorphometrics, is the science and practice of measuring the characteristics of terrain, the shape of the surface of the Earth, and the effects of this surface form on human and natural geography. It gathers various mathematical, statistical and image processing techniques that can be used to quantify morphological, hydrological, ecological and other aspects of a land surface. Common synonyms for geomorphometry are geomorphological analysis, terrain morphometry, terrain analysis, and land surface analysis. Geomorphometrics is the discipline based on the computational measures of the geometry, topography and shape of the Earth's horizons, and their temporal change. This is a major component of geographic information systems (GIS) and other software tools for spatial analysis.

GeoSTAC is a set of spatial data and tools accessed through a Geographic Information System.

Bin Jiang is a professor in geographic information science, geographic information systems or geoinformatics at the University of Gävle, Sweden. He is affiliated to the Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm (KTH) through the KTH Research School at Gävle. He has been coordinating the Nordic Network in Geographic Information Science (NordGISci), and has organized a series of NordGISci summer schools for the Nordic young researchers. He is the founder and chair of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Geospatial Analysis and Modeling, and has established an ICA workshop series on the research topic. He is also an associate editor of the international journal: Computers, Environment and Urban Systems (Elsevier). He has developed the Head/tail Breaks a new classification for data with a heavy-tailed distribution.

Proximity analysis is a class of spatial analysis tools and algorithms that employ geographic distance as a central principle. Distance is fundamental to geographic inquiry and spatial analysis, due to principles such as the friction of distance, Tobler's first law of geography, and Spatial autocorrelation, which are incorporated into analytical tools. Proximity methods are thus used in a variety of applications, especially those that involve movement and interaction.

ArcGIS CityEngine is a commercial three-dimensional (3D) modeling program developed by Esri R&D Center Zurich and specialises in the generation of 3D urban environments. Using a procedural modeling approach, it supports the creation of detailed large-scale 3D city models. CityEngine works with architectural object placement and arrangement in the same manner that software like VUE manages terrain, ecosystems and atmosphere mapping. Unlike the traditional 3D modeling methodology which uses Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools and techniques, CityEngine takes a different approach to shape generation via a rule-based system. It can also use Geographic Information System (GIS) datasets due to its integration with the wider Esri/ArcGIS platform. Due to this unique feature set, CityEngine has been used in academic research and built environment professions, e.g., urban planning, architecture, visualization, game development, entertainment, archeology, military and cultural heritage. CityEngine can be used within Building Information Model (BIM) workflows as well as visualizing the data of buildings in a larger urban context, enhancing its working scenario toward real construction projects.

Geographic information systems (GIS) play a constantly evolving role in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) and United States national security. These technologies allow a user to efficiently manage, analyze, and produce geospatial data, to combine GEOINT with other forms of intelligence collection, and to perform highly developed analysis and visual production of geospatial data. Therefore, GIS produces up-to-date and more reliable GEOINT to reduce uncertainty for a decisionmaker. Since GIS programs are Web-enabled, a user can constantly work with a decision maker to solve their GEOINT and national security related problems from anywhere in the world. There are many types of GIS software used in GEOINT and national security, such as Google Earth, ERDAS IMAGINE, GeoNetwork opensource, and Esri ArcGIS.

Patrick Alasdair Fionn Turner (19 October 1969 – 6 October 2011) was a British-born scientist, who played a major role in the VR Centre for the Built Environment and the Space group at the University College London. His contribution had a great impact on the development of space syntax theory. This goes in parallel to his research into introducing a dynamic agent model that derives aggregate spatial analysis from the visual affordances of the built environment. Based on the principles of Turner's theory on Embodied space, his agent model proves to correlate well with natural movement behavior in architectural and urban environments. Turner was born on 19 October 1969, in London. He earned an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh. Turner was last appointed a reader in Urban and Architectural Computing at the University College London in 2011. Turner died on 6 October 2011 after a long struggle with stomach cancer.

Fuzzy architectural spatial analysis (FASA) (also fuzzy inference system (FIS) based architectural space analysis or fuzzy spatial analysis) is a spatial analysis method of analysing the spatial formation and architectural space intensity within any architectural organization.

References

↑ "Space Syntax Laboratory - software". March 2, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-03-02.
↑ "Cities". August 31, 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-08-31.
↑ "DETAILS - ESRI ArcScripts". February 24, 2003. Archived from the original on 2003-02-24.
↑ "Axwoman Homepage". giscience.hig.se.
↑ "Depthmap". 2001-07-13. Archived from the original on 13 July 2001. Retrieved 2021-07-29.
↑ "Visibility Analysis | Intelligent Space Partnership". September 20, 2004. Archived from the original on 20 September 2004.
↑ "Mindwalk : Space Syntax Software". May 3, 2006. Archived from the original on 3 May 2006.
↑ "Sanjay Rana". University College London. 2007-02-08. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2021-07-29.
↑ "ajanachara homepage". July 17, 2004. Archived from the original on 17 July 2004.
↑ "WebMap". May 10, 2002. Archived from the original on 10 May 2002.
↑ "Space Syntax | Thriving life in buildings & urban places". spacesyntax.com. Retrieved 2021-07-29.
↑ "Space Syntax Laboratory - software". March 2, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-03-02.
↑ "AJAX". casa.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 1 June 2005.
↑ "CECA".
↑ "ArcGIS Code Sharing". codesharing.arcgis.com.
↑ "WebmapAtHome download page". www.thepurehands.org.
↑ "AxialGen 1.0 - automating the axial lines". giscience.hig.se.
↑ "Layout-iQ Overview". www.rapidmodeling.com.
↑ "City Form Lab". City Form Lab.
↑ "Urban Network Analysis Toolbox for ArcGIS". City Form Lab.
↑ "About ArcGIS | Mapping & Analytics Software and Services". www.esri.com.
↑ "ArcGIS Network Analyst | Vehicle Routing Problem & Spatial Network Analysis". www.esri.com.
↑ "Urban Network Analysis toolbox for Rhino3D". City Form Lab.
↑ Associates, Robert McNeel &. "Download - Rhino 5 for Windows". www.rhino3d.com.
↑ Mekandizim
↑ "depthmapX: visual and spatial network analysis software". spacegroupucl.github.io.
↑ "SDNA". sdna.cardiff.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-07-29.
↑ "CASOS". www.casos.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-29.
↑ "Isovists.org" . Retrieved 2021-07-29.

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[1] "Space Syntax Laboratory - software". March 2, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-03-02.

[2] "Cities". August 31, 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-08-31.

[3] "DETAILS - ESRI ArcScripts". February 24, 2003. Archived from the original on 2003-02-24.

[4] "Axwoman Homepage". giscience.hig.se.

[5] "Depthmap". 2001-07-13. Archived from the original on 13 July 2001. Retrieved 2021-07-29.

[6] "Visibility Analysis | Intelligent Space Partnership". September 20, 2004. Archived from the original on 20 September 2004.

[7] "Mindwalk : Space Syntax Software". May 3, 2006. Archived from the original on 3 May 2006.

[8] "Sanjay Rana". University College London. 2007-02-08. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2021-07-29.

[9] "ajanachara homepage". July 17, 2004. Archived from the original on 17 July 2004.

[10] "WebMap". May 10, 2002. Archived from the original on 10 May 2002.

[11] "Space Syntax | Thriving life in buildings & urban places". spacesyntax.com. Retrieved 2021-07-29.

[12] "Space Syntax Laboratory - software". March 2, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-03-02.

[13] "AJAX". casa.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 1 June 2005.

[14] "CECA".

[15] "ArcGIS Code Sharing". codesharing.arcgis.com.

[16] "WebmapAtHome download page". www.thepurehands.org.

[17] "AxialGen 1.0 - automating the axial lines". giscience.hig.se.

[18] "Layout-iQ Overview". www.rapidmodeling.com.

[19] "City Form Lab". City Form Lab.

[20] "Urban Network Analysis Toolbox for ArcGIS". City Form Lab.

[21] "About ArcGIS | Mapping & Analytics Software and Services". www.esri.com.

[22] "ArcGIS Network Analyst | Vehicle Routing Problem & Spatial Network Analysis". www.esri.com.

[23] "Urban Network Analysis toolbox for Rhino3D". City Form Lab.

[24] Associates, Robert McNeel &. "Download - Rhino 5 for Windows". www.rhino3d.com.

[25] Mekandizim

[26] "depthmapX: visual and spatial network analysis software". spacegroupucl.github.io.

[27] "SDNA". sdna.cardiff.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-07-29.

[28] "CASOS". www.casos.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-29.

[29] "Isovists.org" . Retrieved 2021-07-29.

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Spatial network analysis software

Contents

Packages

See also

Related Research Articles

References