[GIS] Tracklogs to single line OR several lines to one line

arcgis-desktopgeneralizationparallel linespolyline-creationtracklog

Setting:

I have several trucks driving out of my factory delivering goods and coming back for more deliveries. These trucks are equipped with GPS so that they may return tracklogs to me. These tracklogs are in table format, so it is not hard for me to convert the logs to point shapes or line shapes. But after, say, a month I will have so many overlapping logs, it makes no sense to look at. Therefore I would like to "merge" all the roads together into one where ever they are close to each other. I would also like an attribute which tells me how many times each section has been driven. Finally I want to be able to add new tracklogs to the final result.

Link to image: http://postimage.org/image/1g1sfdnz8/

Tested:

I have tried using the "Merge Divided Roads (Cartography)" tool, but it does not give me the result i want. When using the "Merge Divided Roads (Cartography)" tool, it manages to merge the beginning of the roads, but as soon as they cross paths, it will not merge anymore. (I am guessing this has something to do with the tool being optimized for road networks and all I have are shape files.)

This is practically what "Merge Divided Roads (Cartography)" tool gives me:

Link to image: http://postimage.org/image/1g20p2eg4/

Questions:

  1. Anybody know how to get two or more lines to become one line where they are close and almost parallel?
  2. Would you also know how to get the count of how many times a section of the road has been driven?

Information:

I am using ArcGIS 10 with ArcInfo + some extensions

Best Answer

Merging your truck routes data looks complex, and it is maybe not necessary. Another approach could be the following:

  • Retrieve some road network data for your area of interest. Maybe you already have it. Otherwise, you could get openstreetmap data on roads.

  • Link or snap your route data to this network using some basic data matching operations. A simple linking rule based on minimal distance should provide a satisfying approximation.

  • For each section of the road network, the number of times each section has been driven will then be derived easily: it is the number of truck routes linked to it.

If your purpose is mainly to display your data to have an overview of the distribution of your truck moves, you can also simply display your data using transparency like on this image:

chmuck

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