simplify_network: Simplify Network

In flownet: Transport Modeling: Network Processing, Route Enumeration, and Traffic Assignment

Simplify Network

Description

Spatially simplify a network graph using shortest paths or node clustering methods. This further simplifies the network topology but does not preserve full connectivity. It should ideally be called after consolidate_graph() if the network is still too large/complex.

Usage

simplify_network(
  graph_df,
  nodes = NULL,
  method = c("shortest-paths", "cluster"),
  directed = FALSE,
  cost.column = "cost",
  by = NULL,
  radius_km = list(nodes = 7, cluster = 20),
  verbose = TRUE,
  ...
)

Arguments

graph_df	A data.frame with columns from and to representing the graph edges. For the cluster method, the graph must also have columns FX, FY, TX, TY representing node coordinates.
nodes	For method = "shortest-paths": either an atomic vector of node IDs, or a data.frame with columns from and to specifying origin-destination pairs. For method = "cluster": an (optional) atomic vector of node IDs to preserve. These nodes will be kept as cluster centroids, and nearby nodes (within radius_km$nodes) will be assigned to their clusters. Remaining nodes are clustered using leaderCluster.
method	Character string (default: "shortest-paths"). Method to use for simplification: "shortest-paths" computes shortest paths between nodes and keeps only traversed edges; "cluster" clusters nodes using the leaderCluster algorithm and contracts the graph.
directed	Logical (default: FALSE). Whether the graph is directed. For method = "shortest-paths": controls path computation direction. For method = "cluster": if TRUE, A->B and B->A remain as separate edges after contraction; if FALSE, edges are normalized so that from < to before grouping.
cost.column	Character string (default: "cost"). Name of the cost column in graph_df. Alternatively, a numeric vector of edge costs with length equal to nrow(graph_df). With method = "cluster", a numeric vector of node weights matching nodes_from_graph(graph_df) can be provided.
by	Link characteristics to preserve/not simplify across, passed as a one-sided formula or character vector of column names. Typically includes attributes like mode, type, or capacity. For method = "shortest-paths": paths are computed separately for each group defined by by, with edges not in the current group penalized (cost multiplied by 100) to compel mode-specific routes. For method = "cluster": edges are grouped by from, to, AND by columns, preventing consolidation across different modes/types.
radius_km	Named list with elements nodes (default: 7) and cluster (default: 20). Only used for method = "cluster". nodes: radius in kilometers around preserved nodes. Graph nodes within this radius will be assigned to the nearest preserved node's cluster. cluster: radius in kilometers for clustering remaining nodes using leaderCluster.
verbose	Logical (default: TRUE). Whether to print progress messages/bars.
...	For method = "cluster": additional arguments passed to collap for edge attribute aggregation.

Details

simplify_network() provides two methods to simplify large transport networks:

Method: "shortest-paths"

• Validates that all origin and destination nodes exist in the network

• Computes shortest paths from each origin to all destinations using igraph

• Marks all edges that are traversed by at least one shortest path

• Returns only the subset of edges that were traversed

• If nodes is a data frame with from and to columns, paths are computed from each unique origin to its specified destinations

Method: "cluster"

• Requires the graph to have spatial coordinates (FX, FY, TX, TY)

• If nodes is provided, these nodes are preserved as cluster centroids

• Nearby nodes (within radius_km$nodes km) are assigned to the nearest preserved node

• Remaining nodes are clustered using leaderCluster with radius_km$cluster as the clustering radius

• For each cluster, the node closest to the cluster centroid is selected as representative

• The graph is contracted by mapping all nodes to their cluster representatives

• Self-loops (edges where both endpoints map to the same cluster) are dropped

• For undirected graphs (directed = FALSE), edges are normalized so from < to, merging opposite-direction edges; for directed graphs, A->B and B->A remain separate

• Edge attributes are aggregated using collap (default: mean for numeric, mode for categorical); customize via ...

Value

A data.frame containing the simplified graph with:

• For method = "shortest-paths":

  • All columns from the input graph_df (for edges that were kept)

  • Attribute "edges": integer vector of edge indices from the original graph

  • Attribute "edge_counts": integer vector indicating how many times each edge was traversed

• For method = "cluster":

  • edge - New edge identifier

  • from, to - Cluster centroid node IDs

  • FX, FY, TX, TY - Coordinates of cluster centroid nodes

  • Aggregated edge attributes from the original graph

  • Attribute "group.id": mapping from original edges to simplified edges

  • Attribute "group.starts": start indices of each group

  • Attribute "group.sizes": number of original edges per simplified edge

Examples

library(flownet)
library(sf)

# Convert segments to undirected graph
graph <- africa_segments |>
  linestrings_from_graph() |>
  linestrings_to_graph() |>
  create_undirected_graph(FUN = "fsum")

# Get city/port nodes to preserve
nodes_df <- nodes_from_graph(graph, sf = TRUE)
nearest_nodes <- nodes_df$node[st_nearest_feature(africa_cities_ports, nodes_df)]

# Initial consolidation
graph <- consolidate_graph(graph, keep = nearest_nodes, w = ~ passes)

# Method 1: Shortest-paths simplification (keeps only traversed edges)
graph_simple <- simplify_network(graph, nearest_nodes,
                                 method = "shortest-paths",
                                 cost.column = ".length")
nrow(graph_simple)  # Reduced number of edges


# Method 2: Cluster-based simplification (contracts graph spatially)
# Compute node weights for clustering
node_weights <- collapse::rowbind(
  collapse::fselect(graph, node = from, gravity_rd),
  collapse::fselect(graph, to, gravity_rd),
  use.names = FALSE) |>
  collapse::collap(~ node, "fsum")

graph_cluster <- simplify_network(graph, nearest_nodes,
                                  method = "cluster",
                                  cost.column = node_weights$gravity_rd,
                                  radius_km = list(nodes = 30, cluster = 27),
                                  w = ~ passes)
nrow(graph_cluster)

flownet documentation built on March 22, 2026, 9:06 a.m.