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— Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings

written by Anita Graser aka Underdark

Movement data in GIS PyQGIS 101 Projects Publications About Search

By underdark
2019-07-07
Five QGIS network analysis toolboxes for routing and
QGIS isochrones
3 Comments
In the past, network analysis capabilities in QGIS were rather limited or not straight-forward to
use. This has changed! In QGIS 3.x, we now have a wide range of network analysis tools, both for
use case where you want to use your own network data, as well as use cases where you don’t
have access to appropriate data or just prefer to use an existing service.

This blog post aims to provide an overview of the options:

1. Based on local network data

A. Default QGIS Processing network analysis tools
B. QNEAT3 plugin

2. Based on web services

A. Hqgis plugin (HERE)
B. ORS Tools plugin (openrouteservice.org)
C. TravelTime platform plugin (TravelTime platform)

All five options provide Processing toolbox integration but not at the same level.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’re probably also aware of the pgRoutingLayer plugin.
However, I’m not including it in this list due to its dependency on PostGIS and its pgRouting
extension.

Processing network analysis tools

The default Processing network analysis tools are provided out of the box. They provide
functionality to compute least cost paths and service areas (distance or time) based on your own
network data. Inputs can be individual points or layers of points:
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Best of
Movement data in GIS
Generalizing trajectory datasets
Animating trajectories with
TimeManager
Edge bundling for flow maps
The service area tools return reachable edges and / or nodes rather than a service area polygon: Generating ship AIS tracks
Towards pure Python trajectories using
GeoPandas
Trajectools for QGIS

UPDATED for QGIS 3.4!

QNEAT3 plugin
The QNEAT3 (short for Qgis Network Analysis Toolbox 3) Plugin aims to provide
sophisticated QGIS Processing-Toolbox algorithms in the field of network analysis. With new and updated workflows
QNEAT3 is integrated in the QGIS3 Processing Framework. It offers algorithms that
range from simple shortest path solving to more complex tasks like Iso-Area (aka
service areas, accessibility polygons) and OD-Matrix (Origin-Destination-Matrix)
computation.

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QNEAT3 is an alternative for use case where you want to use your own network data.

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For more details see the QNEAT3 documentation at: https://root676.github.io/index.html

Hqgis plugin
Access the HERE API from inside QGIS using your own HERE-API key. Currently
supports Geocoding, Routing, POI-search and isochrone analysis.

Hqgis currently does not expose all its functionality to the Processing toolbox:

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Instead, the full set of functionality is provided through the plugin GUI:

This plugin requires a HERE API key.

ORS Tools plugin

ORS Tools provides access to most of the functions of openrouteservice.org, based
on OpenStreetMap. The tool set includes routing, isochrones and matrix
calculations, either interactive in the map canvas or from point files within the
processing framework. Extensive attributes are set for output files, incl. duration,
length and start/end locations.

ORS Tools is based on OSM data. However, using this plugin still requires an openrouteservice.org
API key.

TravelTime platform plugin

This plugin adds a toolbar and processing algorithms allowing to query the
TravelTime platform API directly from QGIS. The TravelTime platform API allows to
obtain polygons based on actual travel time using several transport modes rather,
allowing for much more accurate results than simple distance calculations.

The TravelTime platform plugin requires a TravelTime platform API key.

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For more details see: https://blog.traveltimeplatform.com/isochrone-qgis-plugin-traveltime

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Related

Drive Time Isochrones - Drive-time Isochrones A routing script for the

An Example Using from a single Shapefile Processing toolbox
Finnish Airports using QGIS, PostGIS,
and Pgrouting

drive time isochrones network analysis QGIS Routing

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3 comments

Sorin RUSU said: Hi anita, great in-depth article. I have played with the QGIS plugin before but found it lacking Z-connectivity configuration when
2019-07-08 you want to add a road network that has features like tunnels and overpasses. Without Z-connectivity the short route algorithm
13:24 usually shoots right through the tunnel wall to the above street (similar behavior for the overpasses). Is there any configurations
possible via some network attributes, or are we simply relegated to the pgRouting and/or ESRI’s network dataset realms? The
online ORS/Hqgis do follow Z-level topology, however they do not allow using our own datasets in the algorithms.

Reply ↓

underdark said: Which plugin specifically are you referring to? The core network analysis tools? Are you saying that it
2019-07-08 introduces nodes where bridge/tunnel edges go under/over regular edges, thus introducing fake
18:54 intersections? If nodes (i.e. edge start/end points) already exist at those problematic locations, the issue
may be due to the graph builder logic which only evaluates x/y information. In general, building a graph
from edges with start node and end node information is much more reliable than trying to derive it from
geometric information alone.

Reply ↓

Sorin RUSU said: Thanks for the comment – I was referring to the core network analysis tools, however I believe I was partly mistaken. I was
2019-07-09 under the mistaken belief that if you draw two intersecting lines with a pseudo-node (no true vertex at the intersection point),
08:56 and specify that as the input in a road network, it will route you from one line to the other (thus having a right turn from a tunnel
to the above street). However I re-tested this morning and in order to have it route through intersecting lines, both lines need to
‘share’ a common X/Y vertex (if only one line has a vertex at the intersection point, or if no vertex exists at the intersection point
the the short route fails). This means that if tunnels/overpasses are drawn as ‘straight’ lines without sharing a vertex with the
 roads going above/under, than everything should be golden. However if both bridge/tunnel line shares a vertex with the street
below/above, it will route you through the wall/off the bridge. Maybe a picture would be worth a thousand words, however no
idea if there’s a way to upload.

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