Blog Archives

MFworks Tutorial – 05 Cost surface

Usually, to generate a cost-of passage surface, several variables will be collapsed into one layer. These variables might be road class, average speed, traffic density, and congestion during specific time of day or other factors that contribute to the overall cost variable. The cost-of-passage surface can be defined by a variety of measurement units: time, fuel consumption, money or other possible cost units, for which the least cost passage is to be determined.

Using average speed and time as a means of inferring cost-of-passage is among the most common approach in network analysis, since it is easy to use and calculate. However, “least cost” does not always need to be “least time”; it may just as well be least fuel,

Read more

Posted in mfworks
Tags: , , , ,

MFworks Tutorial – 07 Dynamic Cost Surface

One option for implementing a dynamic cost surface is to use a continuously updated network, where the latest available data at the starting time of travel is used, and where the cost of travel does not change during the duration of the estimated route. Another option is to establish a network with varying travel cost per pre-defined time interval. In this case the travel cost is dependent on the starting time of travel, and the travel cost changes when the estimated route passes from one time interval to another.

In practice, the first approach involves building an application that passes on values to the cost surface used in a raster-based GIS for calculating the fastest path in a network.

Read more

Posted in mfworks
Tags: , , ,

MFworks Tutorial – 09 Map Layers Needed

Map layers needed: A network, a cost surface, origin and destination point,

network.mfm

costoftravel.mfm

startstop.mfm

(image missing)

The network is a replica of the Brown’s Pond study area used by Tomlin. The cost surface are fictitious values, 1-4, indicating impedance. Origin and destination were derived by assigning the values 999 and 998 respectively to points on the network map (startstop.mfm) and then extracting each point using Recode.

MFworks – step by step

Read more

Posted in mfworks
Tags: , , , , ,

ARTICLES and PAPERS
Call for papers: Global Supply Chain Risk Management
Are you currently planning to write or actually writing a paper on supply chain risk and wondering w[...]
Broader research = better research?
I have always seen myself as a cross-disciplinary thinker, and I guess that is why I am so often sid[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Can your business take a blow?
Are you prepared for whatever mishaps your business throws at you? If you're not, you better start l[...]
SME Risk Management
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up the majority of enterprises in most countries, and[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Are roads more important than computers?
Critical Infrastructure. Which is more important - or 'critical' - road networks or computers? What [...]
Supply chain disruption risk on the rise
Global supply chains are increasingly becoming more vulnerable to potential disruption to trade, say[...]
from HERE and THERE
In memoriam David Kaye
Sad news. I don't always keep up with the subjects of my reviews, and today I was very saddened to l[...]
Retail Operations in China
In a previous post on the Retail SCM Summit 2011 I mentioned that China as a rising economic powerho[...]