A Network Centrality Application: Examination of Structural Coherence of Colombo Road Network

Abstract

Urban streets demonstrate a hierarchical structure in the sense that a majority is trivial, while a minority is vital [1]. Jiang claimed that “coherent urban streets demonstrate a scaling law and characterised by the 80/20 road hierarchy principle, i.e. 80% of streets are less central (below the average), while 20% of streets are more central (above the average); out of the 20%, there is 1% of streets that are extremely well central” [1]. Recent works on structural analysis of urban street networks in terms of topological centrality in European and USA cities done by Yang et al. [2], Hillier et al. [3], Huang et al. [4], Levinson [5], Wang et al. [6], Gao et al. [7], have also supported the above claim. Accordingly, network centrality is used as a strategic planning tool to identify the structural coherence of transport networks. Inspired by the previous works, this study examines the structural coherence of the road network of Colombo city from the perspective of topological centrality.