Geografic-Information-System/raster/r.walk/r.walk.html

<h2>DESCRIPTION</h2>

<em>r.walk</em> computes anisotropic cumulative cost of moving between
different geographic locations on an input elevation raster map whose
cell category values represent elevation combined with an input raster
map layer whose cell values represent friction cost.

<p>
<em>r.walk</em> outputs 1) a raster map showing the lowest
cumulative cost (time) of moving between each cell and the user-specified
starting points and 2) a second raster map showing the movement 
direction to the next cell on the path back to the start point (see 
<a href="#move">Movement Direction</a>). It uses an input elevation 
raster map whose cell category values represent elevation, 
combined with a second input raster map whose cell values 
represent friction costs.

<p>
This function is similar to <em><a href="r.cost.html">r.cost</a></em>,
but in addiction to a friction map, it considers an anisotropic travel
time due to the different walking speed associated with downhill and
uphill movements.

<h2>NOTES</h2>

<p>
The formula from Aitken 1977/Langmuir 1984 (based on Naismith's rule
for walking times) has been used to estimate the cost parameters of
specific slope intervals:

<div class="code"><pre>
T = a*delta_S + b*delta_H_uphill + c*delta_H_moderate_downhill + d*delta_H_steep_downhill
</pre></div>

where:
<ul>
  <li><tt>T</tt> is time of movement in seconds,</li>
  <li><tt>delta S</tt> is the horizontal distance covered in meters,</li>
  <li><tt>delta H</tt> is the altitude difference in meters.</li>
</ul>

<p>
The a, b, c, d <b>walk_coeff</b> parameters take in account
movement speed in the different conditions and are linked to:

<ul>
  <li>a: time in seconds it takes to walk for 1 meter a flat surface (1/walking speed)</li>
  <li>b: additional walking time in seconds, per meter of elevation gain
      on uphill slopes</li>
  <li>c: additional walking time in seconds, per meter of elevation loss
      on moderate downhill slopes (use positive value for decreasing cost)</li>
  <li>d: additional walking time in seconds, per meter of elevation loss
      on steep downhill slopes (use negative value for increasing cost)</li>
</ul>

It has been proved that moving downhill is favourable up to a specific
slope value threshold, after that it becomes unfavourable. The default
slope value threshold (<b>slope_factor</b>) is -0.2125, corresponding
to tan(-12), calibrated on human behaviour (&gt;5 and &lt;12 degrees:
moderate downhill; &gt;12 degrees: steep downhill). The default values
for a, b, c, d <b>walk_coeff</b> parameters are those proposed by
Langmuir (0.72, 6.0, 1.9998, -1.9998), based on man walking effort in
standard conditions.

<p>The <b>friction</b> cost parameter represents a time penalty in seconds
of additional walking time to cross 1 meter distance.
<p>The <b>lambda</b> parameter is a dimensionless scaling factor of the friction cost:

<div class="code"><pre>
total cost = movement time cost + lambda * friction costs * delta_S
</pre></div>

<p>
For a more accurate result, the "knight's move" option can be used
(although it is more time consuming). In the diagram below, the center
location (O) represents a grid cell from which cumulative distances
are calculated. Those neighbours marked with an x are always
considered for cumulative cost updates. With the "knight's move"
option, the neighbours marked with a K are also considered.

<div class="code"><pre>
  K   K 
K x x x K
  x O x
K x x x K
  K   K
</pre></div>

<p>The minimum cumulative costs are computed using Dijkstra's
algorithm, that find an optimum solution (for more details see
<em>r.cost</em>, that uses the same algorithm).

<a name="move"></a>
<h2>Movement Direction</h2>
<p>The movement direction surface is created to record the sequence of
movements that created the cost accumulation surface. Without it 
<em><a href="r.drain.html">r.drain</a></em> would not correctly create a path from an end point 
back to the start point. The direction of each cell points towards 
the next cell. The directions are recorded as degrees CCW from East:
<div class="code"><pre>
       112.5      67.5         i.e. a cell with the value 135 
157.5  135   90   45   22.5    means the next cell is to the north-west
       180   x   360           
202.5  225  270  315  337.5
       247.5     292.5
</pre></div>

<p>
Once <em>r.walk</em> computes the cumulative cost map as a linear
combination of friction cost (from friction map) and the altitude and
distance covered (from the digital elevation
model), <em><a href="r.drain.html">r.drain</a></em> can be used to
find the minimum cost path. Make sure to use the <b>-d</b> flag and
the movement direction raster map when
running <em><a href="r.drain.html">r.drain</a></em> to ensure the path
is computed according to the proper movement directions.

<p>
<em>r.walk</em>, like most all GRASS raster programs, is also made to 
be run on maps larger that can fit in available computer memory. As the 
algorithm works through the dynamic list of cells it can move almost 
randomly around the entire area. <em>r.walk</em> divides the entire 
area into a number of pieces and swaps these pieces in and out of 
memory (to and from disk) as needed. This provides a virtual memory 
approach optimally designed for 2-D raster maps. The amount of memory 
to be used by <em>r.walk</em> can be controlled with the <b>memory</b> 
option, default is 300 MB. For systems with less memory this value will 
have to be set to a lower value.

<h2>EXAMPLES</h2>
We compute a map showing how far a lost person could get from the
point where he or she was last seen
while taking into account the topography and landcover.
<div class="code"><pre>
g.region swwake_30m -p

# create friction map based on land cover
r.recode landclass96 out=friction &lt;&lt; EOF
1:3:0.1:0.1
4:5:10.:10.
6:6:1000.0:1000.0
7:7:0.3:0.3
EOF

r.walk -k elevation=elev_ned_30m friction=friction output=walkcost \
    start_coordinates=635576,216485 lambda=0.5 max=10000

# compute contours on the cost surface to better understand
# how far the person can get in certain time (1000 is in seconds)
r.contour walkcost output=walkcost step=1000
</pre></div>

<h2>REFERENCES</h2>

<ul>
<li>Aitken, R. 1977. Wilderness areas in Scotland. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis.
 University of Aberdeen.
<li> Steno Fontanari, University of Trento, Italy, Ingegneria per l'Ambiente e
 il Territorio, 2000-2001.
 Svilluppo di metodologie GIS per la determinazione dell'accessibilit&agrave;
 territoriale come supporto alle decisioni nella gestione ambientale.
<li>Langmuir, E. 1984. Mountaincraft and leadership. The Scottish
 Sports Council/MLTB. Cordee, Leicester.
</ul>

<h2>SEE ALSO</h2>

<em>
<a href="r.cost.html">r.cost</a>,
<a href="r.drain.html">r.drain</a>,
<a href="r.in.ascii.html">r.in.ascii</a>,
<a href="r.mapcalc.html">r.mapcalc</a>,
<a href="r.out.ascii.html">r.out.ascii</a>
</em>


<h2>AUTHORS</h2>

<b>Based on r.cost written by :</b><br>
Antony Awaida, Intelligent Engineering, Systems Laboratory, M.I.T.<br>
James Westervelt, U.S.Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory<br>
Updated for Grass 5 by Pierre de Mouveaux (pmx@audiovu.com)

<p><b>Initial version of r.walk:</b><br>
Steno Fontanari, 2002

<p><b>Current version of r.walk:</b><br>
Franceschetti Simone, Sorrentino Diego, Mussi Fabiano and Pasolli Mattia<br>
Correction by: Fontanari Steno, Napolitano Maurizio and  Flor Roberto<br>
In collaboration with: Franchi Matteo, Vaglia Beatrice, Bartucca Luisa, Fava Valentina and Tolotti Mathias, 2004

<p><b>Updated for GRASS 6.1:</b><br>
Roberto Flor and Markus Neteler

<p><b>Updated for GRASS GIS 7:</b><br>
Markus Metz

<p>
<i>Last changed: $Date$</i>