Cost and Path Analysis

Least cost path analysis is a distance analysis tool within GIS that uses the least cost path or the
path between two locations that costs the least to those travelling along it to determine the most
cost-effective route between a source and destination.

Cost can be a function of time, distance or other criteria that is defined by the user.

When using least cost path analysis in GIS, the eight neighbors of a raster cell are evaluated and
the generated path moves to the cells with the smallest accumulated or cost value (“Distance
Analysis Using ArcGIS”). This process is repeated multiple times until the source and
destination are connected. The completed path is the smallest sum of raster cell values between
the two points and it has the lowest cost.

Path analysis deals with movement and linear features. It is raster-based and has a narrower
focus. Using a cost raster that defines the cost of moving through each cell, path analysis finds
the least cost path between cells. Path analysis is useful as a planning tool for locating a new
road or a new pipeline that is least costly in terms of the construction costs.

A path analysis requires a source raster, a cost raster, cost distance measure and a
procedure/algorithm for deriving the least accumulative cost pattern.

Source raster:

A source raster defines the sources cell(s). only the source cell has a cell value in the source
raster, all other cells has no data. Similar to physical distance measure operation in a raster
data analysis, cost distance measures spread from the source cell. In the context of path analysis,
one can consider the source cell as an end point of a path either the origin or the destination. A
path analysis derives for a cell the least cost path to the source cell or to the closest source
cell if two or more source cells are present.

Cost raster:

A cost raster defines the cost to move through each cell. A cost raster has two characteristics.

First characteristics:

The cost for each cell is usually the sum of different costs. The cost for constructing a pipeline
includes the construction and operational costs as well as costs of environmental impacts, like

 Distance from source to destination

 Topography such as slope and grading
 Geology such as rock and soils
 Number of stream, road, railroad crossings
 Proximity to population centres
Second charctareristics:

The cost may represent the actual or relative costs. Relative costs are ranked values. For example
costs may be ranked from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest cost value. A project like pipeline
involves a wide variety of cost factors. Some are measured in actual costs but others are relative
costs such as aesthetics, wildlife habitats and cultural reasons which are measured as relative
costs.

Cost distance measure:

The cost distance measure in a path analysis is based on the node link cell representation.

A node represents the centre of a cell and a link connects the node to its adjacent cells. A link
may be a lateral link or a diagonal link. A lateral link connects a cell to one of its four immediate
neighbor. A diagonal link connects a cell to one of the corner neighbours. The distance is 1.0 cell
for a lateral link and 1.414 cell for a diagonal link

Lateral link

Diagonal link

The cost distance to travel from one cell to another through a lateral link is 1.0 cell times the average of
the two cost values, i.e.,

1x [ ]
c i +c j
2
Where

Ci = cost value at cell i

Cj = cost value at cell j

The cost distance to travel from one cell to another through a diagonal link is =
1. 414 [ ]
c i +c j
2

4. Deriving the least accumulative cost path:

Given a cost raster, we can calculate the accumulative cost between two cells by summing the
costs associated with each link that connects the two cells.

Finding the least accumulative cost path is an iterative process based on Dijkstra’s algorithm.
The process begins by activating cells adjacent to the source cell and by computing costs to the
cells. The cell with the lowest cost distance is chosen from the active cell list, and its value is
assigned to the output raster. Next cells adjacent to the chosen cell are activated and added to the
active cell list. Again, the lowest cost cell is chosen from the list and its neighboring cells are
activated. Each time a cell is reactivated, meaning that the cell is accessible to the source cell
through a different path, its accumulative cost must be recomputed. The lowest accumulative
cost is then assigned to the reactivated cell. The process continues until all cells in the output
raster are assigned with their least accumulative costs to the source cell.

Applications/Examples of Least Cost Path Analysis

Least cost path analysis has a number of different GIS applications.

 used in planning infrastructure such as roads, pipelines, canals, and power transmission
lines as well as for recreational uses such as the development of a hiking trail system in a
national park (Chang).

 Economic and business geographers as well as those making tourist maps and guides can
use least cost path analysis to determine the best and most cost-effective routes between
places on delivery routes, national monuments or other destinations.

Whatever its use, least cost path analysis is an important tool in GIS because it has the ability to
help businesses, city planners and other users save time and money.
 Types of output and presentation

Output:

Types of output

I. Charts
II. Maps

I. Charts

• Charts can be used to display tabular data.

• the types of charts available in ArcView are typical of these available in GIS desktop
systems

• most systems have dynamic (as opposed to static) charting: charts automatically updated
as data in underlying tables changes:

• 6 types in ArcView: area, bar, column, line, pie, scatter

Fig. Types of charts (output)

II. Maps

Maps are the product, the output, of the cartographic communication process. There are several
types of maps, usually divided into two categories: general purpose and Thematic.
General-purpose maps show the location of roads, rivers, institutions, and land covers. Thematic
maps depict particular economic, social, demographic, political, or environmental themes like
population density, age distribution, political party preference, income, or malaria.

1. Dot Density Map

Thematic dot maps use dots or points to show a comparative density of features over a base map
(Figure). The dots are all the same size. Most dot maps are vector based and usually do not
originate from point layers. They derive their dots from values stored in polygon layer attribute
fields. Each polygon’s attribute value dictates the number of dots displayed across the polygon
feature. For instance, if one of your polygon features had a value of 2,223 cattle and you decided
to represent 500 cattle with one dot, the map would have four dots randomly draped over the
polygon.

Dot density map

2. Isoline (Isarithmic) Map

Isoline maps use continuous lines (sometimes called isolines or contours) to reference
differences across a continuous surface. Lines connect places that have the same value. They
require at least ordinal data, but generally use interval or ratio data.
 Isoline map

3. Graduated Symbol Map

Graduated symbol maps use symbols that occur at points across a map, but unlike dot maps, the
symbol size varies based on quantity or magnitude.

Graduated symbol map

4. Choropleth Map

Choropleth maps are the most common and easily recognized of the thematic maps (Figure).
They show ratios, proportions, and percentages that are aggregated within polygon features.
They use grays and colors to depict each polygon’s (or each pixel’s) attribute value. An election
map, depicting shaded states of blue or red—based on the percentage of votes cast for a
politician or a party—is an example. Like graduated symbol maps, choropleth maps have
proportional and range graded variations, but true choropeths only use ratio data. Simpler
“shade” or “color” maps use nominal or ordinal data.

Choropleth maps

5. Cartogram

Cartograms distort polygon shape to depict the magnitude of attribute data (Figure). A high
value within a normally small geographic unit (polygon) creates a large geographic unit on the
map because the size of the polygon is based on the feature’s attribute value. There are different
types of cartograms; they vary on the degree to which the geography is preserved. Broadly,
there are two types of cartograms: Non-continuous is the simplest and easiest to construct. The
polygons do not need to touch each other. They grow and shrink, but they maintain their shape.

Cartogram

6. Flow Map

Flow maps show the movement of goods, people, and ideas between places (Figure). Usually
they depict interval data by differentiating the width of the lines connecting places.
 Flow map

7. Density Map

Density maps depict the concentration of points (and less often lines) across a continuous surface
(Figure). Conceptually, each point in the feature layer spreads out its presence beyond its
immediate location to include adjacent areas. Then, each cell in the raster output image makes a
circular search around itself to determine how many points (or lines) fall within the circular
radius. These maps most often depict feature counts, but density can also be derived from one of
the point layer’s attribute fields.

Density Map
 Types of errors and elimination
When a new dataset is brought to the GIS, the software imports not only the data, but also the
error that the data contains.

Types of errors

1. Instrumental inaccuracies:
 Satellite/ air photo/ GPS/ surveying (spatial).
 Inaccuracies in attribute measuring instruments.
2. Human Processing:
 Misinterpretation (e.g. photos), spatial and attribute.
 Effects of scale change and generalization.
 Effects of classification (nominal / ordinal / interval).
3. Actual Changes:
 Gradual 'natural' changes: river courses, glacier recession.
 Catastrophic change: fires, floods, landslides.
 Seasonal and daily changes: lake/sea/ river levels.
 Man-made: urban development, new roads.
 Attribute change: forest growth (height etc.), discontinued trail /roads,road surfacing
4. Processing Errors:
a. Input
Digitizing: human error, the width of a line, spikes, knots, also entering attribute data.

Dangling nodes, Pseudo-nodes, Projection input error.

b. Manipulation:
Interpolation of point data into lines and surfaces. Overlay of layers, digitized
separately, e.g. soils and vegetation
c. Output:
Scale changes , Color palettes: intended colors don't match from screen to Printer.

Some sources of error in GIS data are very obvious, whereas others are more difficult to notice.
Scale, for example, is an inherent error in cartography; depending on the scale used, we will be
able to represent different type of data, in a different quantity and with a different quality.
Cartographers should always adapt the scale of work to the level of detail needed in their
projects.

The age of data may be another obvious source of error. When data sources are too old, some, or
a big part, of the information base may have changed. GIS users should always be mindful when
using old data and the lack of currency to that data before using it for contemporary analysis.

There are some types of errors created when formatting data for processing. Changes in scale,
reprojections, import/export from raster to vector, etc. are all examples of possible sources of
formatting errors.
Quantitative and qualitative errors: A common mistake consists on label errors. For instance,
an agricultural land may be incorrectly marked as a marsh, and this would cause an error that the
map user may not notice because he may not be familiar with the area in question. Quantitative
errors may occur also when using instrument that have not been properly calibrated creating
subsequent errors hard to identify in the field, but that will cause your project to lose accuracy
and reliability.

Positional accuracy, which is dependent on the type of data. Cartographers can accurately
locate certain features like roads, boundary lines, etc. but other data with less defined position in
space such as soil types, may be just an approximate location based on the estimation of the
cartographer. Other features, like climate, for instance lack defined boundaries in nature and,
therefore, are subject to subjective interpretation.

Topological errors occur often during the digitizing process. Errors of the operator may result
in polygon knots, and loops, and there may be some errors associated with damaged source maps
as well.

Examples of topological errors in GIS.

GIS error elimination

The simplest method of checking for data errors in GIS is by visual inspection.
Comparison of data in GIS format with the original map reveals major errors. Double digitising
is an error checking method used by large companies. This involves digitising the same map
twice and comparing the two copies to identify inconsistencies. This is a costly and time
consuming method of error checking. Statistical methods can be used to pinpoint potential
errors.