HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

An isochrone map in
geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...
and
urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water ...
is a map that depicts the area accessible from a point within a certain time threshold. An
isochrone Isochrone may refer to: * Stellar isochrone, the curve on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram representing stars of the same age *Isochrone curve, the curve (a cycloid) for which objects starting at different points finish at the same time and point ...
(iso = equal, chrone = time) is defined as "a line drawn on a map connecting points at which something occurs or arrives at the same time". In
hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
and
transportation planning Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments, and spatial planning designs to prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations. As practiced today, it is a collaborative process that ...
isochrone maps are commonly used to depict areas of equal travel time. The term is also used in
cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular he ...
as a tool to visually detect abnormalities using body surface distribution.


History

Early examples of Isochrone maps include the Galton's ''Isochronic Postal Charts'' and ''Isochronic Passage Charts'' of 1881 and 1882, Bartholomew's ''Isochronic Distance Map and Chart'' first published 1889 and Albrecht Penck's ''Isochronenkarte'' first published 1887. Where as Galton and the Bartholomews published maps depicting the days or weeks it took to travel long distances, Albrecht further developed the idea to not only depict long distances and world travel but also smaller areas. Penck also created a series of maps that only depict the travel times of a certain transportation mode, for example
Rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
. Isochrone maps are commonly used in the UK in connection with
development control Development Management, formerly known as planning control, or development control, is the element of the United Kingdom's system of town and country planning through which local government or the Secretary of State, regulates land use and new bu ...
. Isochrones are currently typically computed by via generating shortest-path trees on network graphs, and then generating a convex hull around the accessible nodes. Increases in computation, data storage, and improvements in algorithms have facilitated the rapid generation of isochrones. Recent techniques in visualization include linking travel times to network edges to show the paths accessible from a point rather than show the area accessible from a point.


Usage


Hydrology

Isochrone and related maps are used to show the time taken for runoff water within a
drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
to reach a lake, reservoir or outlet, assuming constant and uniform effective rainfall. An early example of this method was demonstrated by Clark in 1945.


Transport planning

Isochrone maps have been used in transportation planning since at least 1887. Isochrone maps in the context of transport planning are essentially maps of accessibility where travel time is used as the cost metric. Isochrone maps can be created for different modes of transportation, e.g. foot, bicycle, motor vehicle. Put simply, the output of an isochrone map for transport will show how far (in distance) is reachable from a start point, including the parameter of time. Such maps for private motor transport were widely used in a 1972 study into airport accessibility in
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
,
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...
. At that time, their use was disadvantaged by being time-consuming to create. The term isodapane map is used to refer to a map were the contour represent transportation ''cost'' instead of transportation ''time''.


General public

Journey time websites have been built using mapping technologies and
open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...
. Isochrones can be used by house hunters wishing to evaluate
residential area A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family res ...
s. An isochrone map of the
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The U ...
network was made available in 2007. A time-based travel map that went viral was th
Isochronic World Map
produced using data from Rome2rio's routing engine for plane, train, bus, ferry and automobile. It compared travel times from London in 2016 versus 1914.


Services and applications

Several digital tools exist which can generate isochrone maps.
openstreetmap OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed ...
-based solutions:
CommuteTimeMap
- lets to build and visualize isochrones worldwide
Geoapify Isochrone API
- API service to build isochrones for drive, truck, bicycle, walk and transit modes. Worldwide. * GraphHopperbr>
https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper/pull/1237] can be used to calculate a detailed time information for every point within a certain time or distance reach.
GRASS
v.net.iso module
instaGIS
ref name="instaGIS">

Iso4App
Public Transport Isochrone maps (Isochrones based on GTFS data)
Mapbox Isochrone API
(interactiv
Mapbox
example) * Mapumental
OpenRouteServiceIsochrones Service
- uses OSM data and map, shows isochrones worldwide (no source code available)
OpenTripPlanner
- a development branch has work on an Analytics Extension, which currently provides isochrones based on the OSM network and GTFS data (source code available)
OSRM Isochrone
Generate drivetime isochrones from OSM using
OSRM The Open Source Routing Machine or OSRM is a C++ implementation of a high-performance routing engine for shortest paths in road networks. Licensed under the permissive 2-clause BSD license, OSRM is a free network service. OSRM supports Linux, FreeB ...
.
pgRouting
The creation of journey time isochrones to airports in
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
has been explained using the GIS software QGIS and pgRouting (an extension of
PostGIS PostGIS ( ) is an open source software program that adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. PostGIS follows the Simple Features for SQL specification from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Technica ...
).
pysochrone
is a Python script and simple web interface for computing and displaying isochrones from an
OGR In mathematics, a Golomb ruler is a set (mathematics), set of marks at integer positions along a ruler such that no two pairs of marks are the same distance apart. The number of marks on the ruler is its ''order'', and the largest distance bet ...
-supported data source (e.g.
PostGIS PostGIS ( ) is an open source software program that adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. PostGIS follows the Simple Features for SQL specification from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Technica ...
)
Reachability Analysis
An application (built using WhereOS and OSM data) which calculates reachability (isochrone) from given set of addresses. * Safe Routes to School Mapping Toolkit - working to create travel distance/time web app for pedestrians and bicyclists using OSM data (source code available)
TargomoAPI
- Travel times, Routing, Points of Interests, Isochrones - developer tools to build state-of-the-art geospatial analytics applications, enhance location search, and personalize user experience. (Interactiv
Demo

TravelTime API
ref>
Uses some OSM Data and has a free isochrone generator tool using public transport, cycling, walking, driving and combined bike & train. Available as a plugin fo
QGIS
an
ArcGIS
*
Valhalla In Norse mythology Valhalla (;) is the anglicised name for non, Valhǫll ("hall of the slain").Orchard (1997:171–172) It is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. Half of those who die in combat ...
br>isochrone service

Walkscore Travel Time API
- uses GTFS and OSM data for maps of Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Built on the open source Graphserver library. (no source)
WNYC Transit Time
- public transit isochrones for NYC GTFS-based solutions:
Mapnificent
ref name="men mapnificent 2011" /> Proprietary data solutions: *
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
API
PedCatch


See also

* Accessibility (transport) * Daily urban system * Public transport timetable * Traffic congestion map * Transit map


References


External links

{{commons category, Isochrone maps Free web app : isochrone calculato
www.owlapps.net/application-geomarketing
Urban planning Hydrology models Cardiology Map types Transportation planning