Integrating Structure and Attributes for Transportation Network Partitioning via Optimal Transport
TL;DR
A flexible framework for partitioning heterogeneous transportation networks represented as attributed graphs based on a distance-based graph representation and an optimal transport formulation based on the semi-relaxed Fused Gromov-Wasserstein discrepancy is proposed, enabling joint consideration of network structure and attributes with explicit control over their trade-off.
Abstract
Transportation network partitioning is essential for applications such as traffic analysis, simulation, and mobility pattern identification. However, transportation networks combine structural information with heterogeneous operational attributes, ranging from scalar indicators to temporal profiles. Existing approaches generally rely on predefined formulations to integrate these sources of information, limiting the ability to control their relative influence. This paper proposes a flexible framework for partitioning heterogeneous transportation networks represented as attributed graphs. The proposed methodology relies on a distance-based graph representation and an optimal transport formulation based on the semi-relaxed Fused Gromov-Wasserstein discrepancy, enabling joint consideration of network structure and attributes with explicit control over their trade-off. The proposed methodology is evaluated on two transportation systems with distinct characteristics: an urban road network for traffic-oriented partitioning and a bicycle-sharing system for identifying usage-based communities. Results demonstrate the ability of the framework to adapt the resulting partitions according to different structural and attribute preferences.