An adaptive method for identifying the spatial patterns in road networks

The spatial patterns of road networks play an important role in spatial recognition, urban structure analysis, spatial data matching, and network analysis. This paper proposes and implements a method for identifying the spatial patterns of road networks. The method first builds a node-edge topology, generates polygons from these edges, and then calculates a set of parameters, specifically consistent arrangement, shape similarity, and a grid shape index of the polygons. Finally, the method identifies spatial patterns via a multi-criteria decision method. Experimental testing of the method showed that it is a very competent feasible means to detect spatial patterns in road networks.