Lab: Network analysis

A network consists of a system of paths traveled by a variety of things, such as traffic, water,
sewage or electricity etc. All feature classes participating in a network must take the role of
either an edge or a junction. An edge feature represents a path along the network. Examples of
edges include roads, pipelines, and electric cables. Edges are represented through line geometry.
A junction represents a point in a network where edges meet or where an object such as a valve
exists. A street intersection, for example, is represented by a junction.

Types of networks

Networks fall into one of two basic categories: transportation and utility networks. The material
in transportation network (cars) has few constraints on travel . the vehicles can usually travel in
either direction along an edge and through junctions. Utility networks have established direction
s of flow determined by the topology of the connections and the location of sources or sinks. A
source point provides material to the network and ‘pushes’ the material away from itself. A sink
represents a location where material is used or leaves the network. Sinks draw the material
toward themselves. Electric meters or water meters on a building might be considered sinks.

Network Analyst tool bar

A flag pinpoints a location of interest, such as the starting and the endpoints of a journey. Flags
may be placed along edges or at junctions.

A barrier represents a temporary blockage or outage in the network. Like flags, barrier may be
placed along edges or at junctions.

Network weights can be stored for each edge or junction as attributes and specify the “cost” of
traversing the network. Common edge weights include distance along the edge or travel time as
dictated by the street length and speed limit. Solvers can take these weights into account when
finding solutions, such as finding the path with least wait time at intersections rather than finding
the shortest path between two points.

Network analysis problems are tackled using a program called a solver. Many types of solvers
are possible.

1. Finding path

This solver traces the least-cost path between two or more flags placed in the network. By
default the “cost” is number of edges traversed. The lowest number of edges does not always
mean shortest path. Finding the shortest path requires a distance weight. In some cases the
shortest path could have more edges.

The user can modify the solver by specifying barriers to travel, such as road construction. Users
can also specify a weight, such as distance or travel time.
Tutorial on Finding path

The following examples provide step-by-step instructions for doing basic tasks of finding path.

1) Start ArcMap. Navigate to the Network Analysis folder. From the folder drag and drop
ex_9.mpk into your QGIS canvas. Map packages come into .mpk extension. It is s a sort
ofArcGISzipped file with the extension .mpk that holds a map document (.mxd) and all the data
included in that map document. The advantage of map package is that the colour and shape file
does not change when you open map package from one system to another system.

2) you will able to see there are several layers in the layer panel on the left including Roads,
Roads network, restaurant, schools, untilities including water network etc.

3)Main menu> Curomize>toolbar> Utility>Network analyst. Utility Network analyst toolbar will
open.

4) click the dropdown arrow in the Network option of Utility Network analyst toolbar and select
Road_Net. Set the solver to ‘Find Path.’ Click the ‘Add Junction Flag’ tool.

5) Click on the ends of two roads on opposite ends of town, as shown in the figure below.
6) Click the solve button in the toolbar. The path solution appears as a bold red line
connecting the flags. This path meets the criterion that it follows the minimum number of edges
through the network.

7) go to Analysis> clear flags and results. Click on Junction Flag Tool and add two flags at any
locations you choose. Click solve. Click solve. Clear the flags and results again using the
Analysis menu. Choose the Edge Flag tool, try adding a pair of edge flags and then solve. Clear
the flags and the results.

8) Now explore the use of barriers to help find the best way to take a child to school. Imagine
that you live on Harney Dr. and that your child goes to Southwest Middle School.

9) Main menu bar > Bookmark> School Trips 1 .

10) Main menu bar> click on Find tool .

11)Type Harney as the text for which to search, set the layer to Roads. Click on Find. Hold down
the Ctrl-key and click on each Harney Dr will be selected. right-click on one of the entries and
choose Select. Harney Dr. will be selected.
12) find Southwest Middle School in the same way using Find tool. Make sure to choose School
under “In” in the Find window.

13. Zoom in to the extent of the Harney Dr to more easily mark the right spot with the flag. Click
the Edge Flag tool. Place a flag near the Middle of Harney Dr., use the Zoom to Previous Extent

button to return to the original extent. Place another edge flag on Park Dr next to school.
Zoom back to see both flags, and make sure the solver is set to Find Path. Click Solve.
14. Perhaps you are wondering how far it is from school. Click the solve button again without
moving the mouse off it, and this time keep an eye on the lower-left corner of the map window to
see the cost.

15. It would be more interesting to find the distance. To find distance, you must use a weight. Go
to Unitility Analyst Toolbar> Analysis>Option. Click on weights tab.set both the along and
against edge weights to Distance. Click OK.
 16. Analysis>Clear results but not the flags. Click the solve again and watch for cost. You will
see distance in meter.

On the first day of school, you discover that an enormous traffic jam builds up at intersection.
You wonder if there is an alternate route.

17. Clear the results but not flags. Zoom in to the middle school to see it better and to see the
road labels appear. Click the Edge Barrier tool and place a barrier on Corral Dr between Park Dr
and Sheridan Lake Rd.

18. Zoom to the previous extend . Click Solve.

19. What is the distance of this alternate route?

Finally, your other child attends Meadowbrook Elementary School. You want to plan a route to
take both children on rainy days. In addition, you have agreed to pick up her friend who lives on
Player Dr. Find a new path including all of these elements.

20. go to Analysis> Clear the results, barriers and the flags. Place an edge flag on Harney Dr. and
next to Southwest Middle School. Locate Player Dr and Meadowbrook Elementary School using
Find tool. Place an edge flag next to Player Dr and Meadowbrook Elementary School. Click the
Solver. When finished clear the result, barriers, flags. Alo Maon menu bar>Selection>clear
selected features.

Advanced path problems

Combination of selections, barriers and other techniques can tackle more advanced path
problems. To start assume you live on Red Dale Dr and work at the South Dakota School of
Mines and Technology (SDSM&T). you decide to map a route to work.

21. Find Red Dale Dr and place an edge flag on the west end.
22. Search for Mines under School layer. Click Find. Right click on the South Dakota School of
Mines and Technology > Select. Zoom to selection. Place the edge flag on E. St. Joseph St. Next
to the school.

23. Solve for path. What is the total cost and distance of the path?

Now imagine that doctors told you to avoid outsite food. Driving home from work in the
evening, you find it nearly impossible to drive by a restaurant without stopping. Try to find a
route home that avoids all the restaurants in town. To begin, select all the road segments that are
close to restaurant.
24. Menu bar>Selection>Select by Location.Select roads that are within 100 meters of a
restaurant. Close the window after completeing the selection.

Next, we will set the trace analysis options so that the selected roads act as an barriers to travel.

25. Utility Network Analyst toolbar>Analysis>Options. Under ‘Trace on’ click on radio button
for ‘Unselected features.’Click OK.
26. clear the previous trace results and Solve the path.

27. What is the total cost and distance of the new path?
Unfortunately, you discovered that last week a new restaurant with juicy burgers and crisp fries
opened at the intersection of Catron Blvd and Highway 16. This new restaurant is not in the
database, so enter barriers by hand.

28. Main menu>Find tool. Search for Catron Blvd. Zoom to the intersection of Catron Blvd and
Highway 16. Add two edge barriers to block off the intersection.

29. Clear the previous results and solve for the path again.

30. what is the total cost and distance of this new path?

31. clear the flags, the barriers, the results. Clear the selected set of roads. turn offthe restaurants
and school layers.

Finding transportation network errors through find connected /find disconnected tracers

The Find Connected solver traces along the features and highlights those that are connectd to the
flags placed on the network. Such a solver might be used to find all of the waterlines that are
supplied by a single water intake gallery along a river. Such information might be useful in
gauging the impact of a chemical spill near the intake and determining which customers must be
warned to purchase drinking water until the contamination is removed.

Find disconnected tracer help to find the topological errors. Errors in topology are often created
during the process of digitizing and creating networks. Once, the network is built, the trace tools
can help you locate and fix these problems. One useful tool is the Find Disconnected solver. In a
road network, it should be possible to get to any road. A disconnected road is usually the result
of a failure to snap the end of a new road to the existing network or to split a road at a junction.

32. Under the Road Network group layer, you will see there are two layers such as Roads (line
layer)and Road_Net_Junctions (a point layer). Utility Network Analyst toolbar> choose the
Junction Flag tool> Set the Trace Task to ‘Find Disconnected.’ click on any two junction point.
Click the Solve button.

You will observe that the topology error is highlighted with red at the northern portion of the
network. Zoom in to the red highlighted zone. Zoom in to one of the spots until the red street
fragment is clearly visible. In one case a sliver road is generated as the two lines for road are not
snapped.
In another case there is a tiny sliver road, which is probably a processing error, lies across the
intersection.

To get rid of this sliver polygon, Menu bar>customize>Editor. The editor toolbar will appear on
your GIS browser. Click the drop down menu against Editor and select Start Editing. The Edit
tool will be active.

33. Using edit tool, select the sliver polygon and press delete button in the key board.
34. select two junction points also using the Edit tool and press delete. It will delete the points
also.To save your edits, click the drop down menu against Editor, select Save Edits and then
Stop Editing.

Finding loops

A loop is a section of a network that forms a continuous loop or ring. In a transportation network,
loops are generally the rule, as most streets eventually connect to other streets and can be
traversed in a circular fashion. This solver find little utility in transportation network. In utility
networks, loop indicate a topological error rather than a legitimate situation. A water pipe that
form a loop would cause problems emerging flow reentered the loop. The Find Loops tracer ,
then, has its primary use as a tool for detecting and fixing loops. A flag must be specified as the
place to begin tracing, and the solver finds all loops that lie downstream of the flag.

35. Untility Network Analyst toolbar> Analysis>clear results. Click Add Junction Flag Tool,
click on any two junction points in the transportation network. Choose Trace Task to Find
Loops. Click Solve.

36. This time nearly the entire network is returned as the result. We can expect this because
typically road networks DO let people drive in loops. However, the roads that are not part of the
result do have a common feature- they are all “dead ends” streets. Of course, some of them end
merely because they go outside the city limits.
 Tracing on Utility networks

Although finding driving routes

is amusing, utility networks also
have interesting tracers. Now we
will take a look at a portion of a
hypothetical water utility system
for east Rapid City.

37. Clear the flags and the

results. Trun off the Road
Network group layer or turn of
Roads and Road_Net_Junctions
layer. Turn on water Network
group layer or add layers of
waterlines, water_Net_Junctions,
Tvalves, Endcaps, Galleries. In Untility Network Analyst toolbar, set the network to Water_Net.
Right click the Galleries layer and choose Open Attribute Table. The attribute table contains
three fields.

38. The Name field simply indicates the name of the gallery. ‘True ‘ under Enabled field
indicates that the galleries are turned on and functioning as part of the network. The
AncillaryRole field says Source, indicating that the galleries are water sources for the network.
They are underground chambers that pull water in from Rapid Creek, filtering and treating it
before it enters the water lines. Close the attribute table.

39. Untility Network Analyst toolbar>Flow>Display arrows. Arrows appear at the centre of each
edge, indicating the dirction of flow.

Changing symbols for potrayng flow.

40. Network Analyst toolbar>Flow>Properties. Flow Display Properties window will open.

Determinate flow indicates that flow has been established. Indeterminate flow means that flow
has been initialized but cannot be determined for the section. Uninitialized flow means that the
flow direction has not yet been established for the network. Click the symbol for Detrminate
flow. The symbol Selector appears. Change the symbol colour to blue . click Apply. The map
arrows change the colour. Similarly, change the symbol for Indeterminate flow to pink square.

Setting display scale for arrows:

Display scale can be set so that the networks are not cluttered with arrows at small scales.

41. Network Analyst toolbar>Flow>Properties>Scale. Click the radio button for ‘Don’t show
arrows when zommed out beyond and enter 30000. Click OK.
42. Now zoom out. What happens to arrows?

To turn off the arrows go to Network Analyst toolbar>Flow. Click on Display Arrows.

Lets explore this network more by using some of the tracing tools. Lets start by seeing which
parts of the network are connected to each gallery.

43. Right click on Gallery>check against Label feature to turn on the labels. Choose the Junction
Flag tool and click to add a flag at the Civic Center gallery.

Set the trace task to Find Connected . Click the Solve button. Now it is easy to see which areas of
the town are served by the Civic Centre gallery.
We can us Find Disconnected to highlight the other pipes that are not connected to this gallery.
Clear the results and Solve for the trace task to Find Disconnected. Copy and paste the result in
the answer sheet.

Finding loops

44. Clear the results. Add another junction flag to the other gallery –Fast Rapid. In this way both
subnets are examined for loops. Change the trace task to Fnd Loops and Solve. The result will
show a loop highlighted in Red.
45. Zoom in to the single red loop. Network Analyst toolbar> Flow>Display arrows.

Notice that all of the lines except the loop have blue determinate flow arrows. The loop has the
pink square indeterminate flow symbols. The water could go around the loop in either direction.
Fixing this would require editing the loop to break the connection at one point. Clear the flags
and the results.

Trace Upstream/Downstream

Trace Upstream and Trace Downstream provide a way to follow the flow from a specified
location. The downstream trace finds all the edges that lie downstream of a flagged location or
locations. Such a solver might be used to find the service areas that would be disrupted by a
downed power line or a water line break.

One useful benefit of using network module is the ability to predict what areas of town will
experience service disruptions due to rpairs and outages. The city has been planning to repair a
leaking pipe on St. Patrick St between 6th and 7th Ave. they will need to turn off the flow to the
pipe for several hours, and they want to notify the customers who will be affected.

46. Turn on the roads layer. Menu bar>selection>select by attributes. Put a quiery [STREETS]=
‘ST.PATRICK’ like below to find out St. Patrick station. Click Apply. St. Patrick station road
will be highlighted.
Zoom into the selected feature. Now to identify the area between 6th and 7th avenue on this road
put a new quiery [STREET]= ‘6’ OR [STREET]= ‘7.’

47. Put an ede flag to the segment of the water line that follows St. Patrick St. between the 6th
and 7th. Network Analyst toolbar> set the trace task to ‘Trace Downstream.’Cick Solve button.

Now you know where to notify customers. If this network were down to the building connections
for each parcel, then the utilities company would be able to automatically compile a mailing list
to send to the affected customers.

48. Clear results. Find the path that the water has traveled to reach the flagged location using
Trace Upstream tool. Copy and paste your map.
Find Upstream accumulation

This solver is a variation of the Trace Path Upstream tool but it keeps track of the weights on
each edge and junction and applies them to determine a total accumulation of resources along the
path.

49. Clear the flags and the results. Clear the selected features. Menu bar?selection>select by
attributes.put a quiery [STREET]= ‘Grand Vista’. Click apply. The Grand Vista Ct. street north
and south are highlighted. Zoom into the the location of these two streets.

50. Place a Junction flag on the Water net junction point on N.Grand Vista Ct. Network
Analyst toolbar> set the tracer task to Find Upstream Accumulation. Click Solve .

51. From which gallery water is supplied in this region? What is the cost?
52. Network Analyst toolbar> Analysis>Options. Click Weights tab and set both along and
against weights to Distance. Click OK. Click Solve again.

53. How far does the water travel to get there?