Tell me more ×
Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for cartographers, geographers and GIS professionals. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

I have a generic polygon layer, would it be difficult to do subdivide the polygon into sub polygons provided they're all relative of the same area? Let's say divide a polygon into 10 or so sub polygons.

share|improve this question
1  
There won't be a unique solution. To understand any solution, you need to know three things: (1) which subpolygons can possibly arise through this procedure; (2) the probabilities with which they are chosen; and (3) the probabilities with which groups of them are chosen (that is, statistical dependencies in selection). Random generation of anything is usually done to simulate something, so look to this for clues to answering (1) - (3). In particular, what are you simulating? – whuber♦ Nov 23 '10 at 16:55
I'm trying to model urban development in undeveloped areas with no streets. So let's say you have an area of 100 acres, divide it into 10 - 10acre sub areas. and each area will have a subdivision a small store, etc ... – dassouki Nov 24 '10 at 13:08

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

Maybe try this:

Randomly drop points into the polygon's minimum bounding rectangle until 10 of the points fall within the polygon. Create a voronoi diagram of the 10 points then intersect it with the original polygon.

share|improve this answer
This elegant simple procedure works for convex polygons but can fail for concave ones (unless you allow for multi-part subpolygons). Also, it seems the solutions will tend to consist of relatively large interior polygons bordered by smaller ones. I wonder whether this is consistent with whatever "relative of the same area" means. – whuber♦ Nov 23 '10 at 17:28

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.