Extracting Road Networks from Spatial Data

• In Event: Innovations in Measuring Strategic Interactions During Violent Conflict

Abstract

There is growing interest among scholars in understanding how transportation infrastructure, such as roads, influences a variety of development and security-related outcomes. Within this framework researchers often conceptualize roads as networks that connect cities, and ask how the position of cities in the broader road network shapes their political and economic trajectories. Yet while many scholars have analyzed road networks and other spatial network dynamics, there is little consensus on how to build a network out of spatial data, or what challenges and assumptions underlie network construction. This project makes three methodological contributions. First, it delineates the conceptual and computational challenges associated with creating road networks out of spatial data. Second, it proposes a flexible method for extracting road networks from spatial data and outlines its assumptions and potential limitations. Finally, it presents R code that implements this method for others to use.

Authors

• Juan Fernando Tellez, Duke University

• Rob Williams, Washington University in St. Louis