Exploring the hierarchical structure in road network

Abstract

Hierarchical structure of road network has received intensive attention either in urban planning or multi-scale representation. On the one hand, high-efficiency traffic flow counts on a reasonable hierarchical structure. On the other hand, it is a guide-line for cartographic generalization of road network. The paper attempts to investigate the hierarchical structure of a road network from two perspectives, a) the ht-index in terms of the degree connectivity, which was proposed to quantify the scaling and hierarchical structure of the network, b) the renormalization process, originated from complex network analysis, which is able to uncover the self-similarity of a network and reveal its hierarchical structure. We argue that the first point exhibits a big picture of the whole network, revealing the depth of the hierarchy, while the second point further illustrates how the nodes are organized to form a hierarchical structure at different scales. The hierarchical structures of 6 road networks in reality are examined accordingly. Results show that both indices are able to reveal the complexity of the hierarchy of a network. These conclusions can be beneficial to the road network generalization.