An advanced web API for isochrones calculation using OpenStreetMap data

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates a software that finally makes urban reachability analysis free, open-source, and usable for non-technical urban analysts. We aim to provide researchers with a highly-parametric API (Application Programming Interface) for creating isochrones worldwide, meeting various scenario requirements with high accuracy. We start with OpenStreetMap road data that the software cleans by applying a sub-graph algorithm, removing isolated road links. This results in a fully-connected network for isochrones calculation, improving the web API stability. Then, a non-recursive breadth-first-search algorithm runs in parallel to generate isochrone links. The isochrones are then constructe..