Table Of ContentMahmuda Ahmed · Sophia Karagiorgou
Dieter Pfoser · Carola Wenk
Map
Construction
Algorithms
Map Construction Algorithms
Mahmuda Ahmed • Sophia Karagiorgou
Dieter Pfoser (cid:129) Carola Wenk
Map Construction
Algorithms
123
MahmudaAhmed SophiaKaragiorgou
DepartmentofComputerScience SchoolofRuralandSurveyingEngineering
UniversityofTexasatSanAntonio NationalTechnicalUniversityofAthens
SanAntonio,TX,USA Zografou,Greece
DieterPfoser CarolaWenk
DepartmentofGeography DepartmentofComputerScience
andGeoinformationScience TulaneUniversity
GeorgeMasonUniversity NewOrleans,LA,USA
Fairfax,VA,USA
ISBN978-3-319-25164-6 ISBN978-3-319-25166-0 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-25166-0
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015953323
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
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To
Myparents, JamiulandRaif
–Mahmuda
Mylovedones
–Sophia
Nektaria,Daphne,andAlexandros
–Dieter
Joe,Dagmar,andK.-U.
–Carola
Preface
Streetmapsandtransportationnetworksareoffundamentalimportanceinawealth
of applications. In the past, the production of street maps required expensive field
surveying and labor-intensive post-processing. Proprietary data vendors such as
NAVTEQ(nowNokia),TeleAtlas(nowTomTom),andGooglethereforedominated
themarket.Inrecentyearsvolunteeredgeographicinformation(VGI)effortssuch
as OpenStreetMap (OSM) have complemented commercial map datasets. They
provide map coverage especially in areas that are of less commercial interest.
VGIeffortshowever stillrequirededicateduserstoauthormapsusingspecialized
software tools. Lately on the other hand, the commoditization of GPS technology,
itsintegrationinmobilephones,andtheadventoflow-costfleetmanagementand
positioning applications have triggered the generation of vast amounts of tracking
data. As a size indicator one can consider the contribution of tracking data in
OpenStreetMap, which is steadily increasing and currently amounts to 2.6 trillion
points.Besidestheuseofsuchdataintrafficassessmentandforecasting,i.e.,map-
matchingvehicletrajectoriestoroadnetworkstoobtaintraveltimes,therehasbeen
arecentsurgeofactualmapconstructionalgorithmsthatderivenotonlytraveltime
attributesbutactualroadnetworkgeometriesfromtrackingdata.
The ambition of this book is to provide the reader with an introduction to
map construction algorithms. Providing a research overview is a challenging task
since map construction is a very active research field. We address this conundrum
by identifying and focusing on three emerging categories of map construction
algorithms. For each category we present the general algorithmic idea and a high-
leveldescriptionoftherespectivealgorithms.Forthisbooktoalsoserveasastarting
point for map construction research, an in-depth discussion of relevant algorithms
is essential. Here, we selected three respective methods, one for each category of
algorithms. Devoting one chapter per method, we provide a detailed description
thatcanserveasabasisforsubsequentresearch.
Amajorchallengeintheresearchcommunityistocomparetheperformanceand
toevaluatethequalityofcompetingalgorithms.Theoutcomeofmapconstruction
is a map dataset that should be close to an actual map data geometry. The quality
of an algorithm can thus be measured by the accuracy of its respective result.
vii
viii Preface
Visual inspection has been the most common evaluation approach throughout the
literature since it gives an intuitive way of assessing the quality of a map. Parts
of this book are dedicated to showcasing map construction results from different
algorithms to provide the reader with a simple means to assess the strengths and
weaknessesofmapconstruction.Onlyafewrecentworksincorporatequantitative
distance measures to assess the quality of map construction results. The cross-
comparison of different algorithms remains rare, since algorithms and constructed
mapsaregenerallynotpubliclyavailable.Inaddition,thereisalackofbenchmark
dataandthequantitativeevaluationwithsuitabledistancemeasuresisinitsinfancy.
This book discusses the range of existing methods to assess the quality of the
constructedmaps.Thesemethodsarenotonlydiscussedintermsoftheirtheoretical
characteristics but are also used with different tracking datasets to quantify the
qualityoftheproducedmaps.
The datasets used in the evaluation were created by tracking vehicle fleets in
threelargecities.Weuseddatasetsfromdifferentcitiestocoverdiverseroads(i.e.,
highwaysandsecondaryroads),differentsamplingrates,anddifferentscales.
In addition to providing a comprehensive comparison of map construction
algorithms, we make the mentioned datasets, map construction algorithms and
outputs,aswellastheevaluationmethodspubliclyavailableontheInternetathttp://
www.mapconstruction.org/. We have established this Web site as a repository for
mapconstructiondataandalgorithms,andweinviteotherresearcherstocontribute
byuploadingcodeandbenchmarkdatasupportingtheirmapconstructionwork.We
expect that such a central repository will encourage a culture of sharing and will
enablethedevelopmentofimprovedmapconstructionalgorithms.
Organizationof This Book
This book seeks to outline the basic principles of map construction algorithms.
It deals with the concepts, techniques, and specifically algorithms that have been
developed in recent years. An introductory chapter is the basic reference point for
all types of readers including practitioners, scientists, and graduate students. The
reader will gain an overview of the research ambition so as to also assess the
potential of map construction algorithms in her respective field. Beyond covering
basic categorization and overview, subsequent chapters give an in-depth analysis
of specific techniques. This discussion of map construction algorithms as well as
evaluationmethodstargetsresearchersinterestedinadvancingthefield.Thosechap-
ters in connection with the accompanying Web page http://www.mapconstruction.
org/ allow for a quick assessment of the state of the art in map construction. The
reader is able to download source code and run the algorithms using provided
exampledatasetsbasedoninstructionsdetailedinauserguidechapterinthisbook.
The interested reader will find, at the end of each chapter, a section devoted to
bibliographic notes. The book is organized in nine chapters, whose content is as
follows.
Preface ix
(cid:129) Chapter 1 gives an overview of map construction algorithms and groups them
intothreemaincategories.
(cid:129) Chapter 2 describes the TraceBundle algorithm as a proponent of intersection
linkingalgorithmsindetail.
(cid:129) Chapter 3 gives a description of an incremental track insertion algorithm that
utilizestheFréchetdistance.
(cid:129) Chapter 4 presents an example of a density-based map construction algorithm
andshowcasestheuseofapipelinewithmultipleintermediatesteps.
(cid:129) Chapter 5 visualizes a range of trajectory datasets, reference maps, and map
constructionresults.
(cid:129) Chapter6introducesarangeofmethodstoassessthequalityoftheconstructed
maps.
(cid:129) Chapter 7 is devoted to an experimental evaluation and to establish general
performancecharacteristicsofthethreealgorithms.
(cid:129) Chapter 8 discusses nontraditional uses for map construction algorithms, i.e.,
scenarios in which constructing a “map” would provide further insight into the
data.
(cid:129) Chapter 9 provides a user guide for the three map construction algorithms
described in detail in this book. The guide shows how to use the actual code
andtoproducemapsbasedonincludedtrajectorydata.
Thebookhasseveralpotentialaudiences.Thefirstaudienceincludesinterested
practitioners from the geospatial data management community trying to use map
construction as a means to simplify and aggregate trajectory datasets. This work
will have respective data mining algorithms as its ultimate goal, i.e., to perform
data analysis on massive amounts of trajectory data. Another audience consists of
graduatestudentsandresearchersinterestedinextendingthecurrentstateoftheart
inmapconstructionresearch.Thisincludes,forexample,computationalgeometry
researcherspursuingthemapconstructionchallengefromatheoreticalperspective
and aiming for algorithms that provide quality guarantees. We tried as much as
possible to cater to both audiences by having overview and example chapters
as well as an in-depth discussion of specific methods and specific experimental
results. Practitioners will be more interested in Chaps.1, 5, 8, and 9, which
provideanoverviewofmapconstructionalgorithms,visualizesomeresults,discuss
new application areas, and provide a user guide, respectively. A more detailed
discussion of the algorithms is provided in Chaps.1–4, with evaluation measures
andexperimentalresultsbeingdiscussedinChaps.6and7,respectively.Inaddition,
thededicatedWebpageandrespectiveuserguideofChap.9shouldallowthereader
tostartworkingwiththevariousalgorithmsrightaway.
