Computing street centrelines from interstitial area - Application to the street network schematisation in the Metropolitan District of Quito (Ecuador)

This paper describes the foundations and the implementation of a GIS method that allows the generation of a network from an interstitial area. The method was specially designed to automatically create the urban road network using a georeferenced cadastre in a vector format. This tool is very useful for urban management authorities as it avoids the tedious manual digitising process or the frequently-used GPS acquisition survey (road tour) and as it also ensures an optimal overlay between the roads and blocks layers. The functionality was implemented in SavGIS, a GIS freeware developed by IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, France) within the framework of the scientific cooperation with southern countries.