The SANET Toolbox: New Methods for Network Spatial Analysis

This chapter paper considers GI System-based methods for analyzing spatial phenomena that occur on a network, herein referred to as network spatial phenomena. A typical network spatial phenomenon is the incidence of traffic accidents that occur on a road network (additional examples are given in Section 1). To analyze network spatial phenomena properly, a new class of spatial methods has been introduced. These assume that the real world is represented by a network embedded on a plane, where events are represented by points on the network, and the distance between two points is measured by the shortest-path distance. These methods are referred to as network spatial methods and spatial analysis undertaken using network spatial methods is called network spatial analysis. The network spatial methods differ from ordinary spatial methods. The latter assume that the real world is represented by a plane, where events are represented by points on the plane, and the distance between two points is measured by Euclidean distance. Such methods are referred to as planar spatial methods and spatial analysis undertaken using planar spatial methods is called planar spatial analysis. This chapter paper describes network spatial analysis is demonstrated using a GIS. The