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An isochrone map in
Early examples of Isochrone maps include the Galton's ''Isochronic Postal Charts'' and ''Isochronic Passage Charts'' of 1881 and 1882, Bartholomew's ''Isochronic Distance Map and Chart'' first published 1889 and Albrecht Penck's ''Isochronenkarte'' first published 1887. Where as Galton and the Bartholomews published maps depicting the days or weeks it took to travel long distances, Albrecht further developed the idea to not only depict long distances and world travel but also smaller areas. Penck also created a series of maps that only depict the travel times of a certain transportation mode, for example
Isochronic World Map
produced using data from Rome2rio's routing engine for plane, train, bus, ferry and automobile. It c
An isochrone map in geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...
and urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water ...
is a map that depicts the area accessible from a point within a certain time threshold. An isochrone
Isochrone may refer to:
* Stellar isochrone, the curve on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram representing stars of the same age
*Isochrone curve, the curve (a cycloid) for which objects starting at different points finish at the same time and point ...
(iso = equal, chrone = time) is defined as "a line drawn on a map connecting points at which something occurs or arrives at the same time". In hydrology
Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
and transportation planning
Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments, and spatial planning designs to prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations. As practiced today, it is a collaborative process that ...
isochrone maps are commonly used to depict areas of equal travel time. The term is also used in cardiology
Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular he ...
as a tool to visually detect abnormalities using body surface distribution.
History
Early examples of Isochrone maps include the Galton's ''Isochronic Postal Charts'' and ''Isochronic Passage Charts'' of 1881 and 1882, Bartholomew's ''Isochronic Distance Map and Chart'' first published 1889 and Albrecht Penck's ''Isochronenkarte'' first published 1887. Where as Galton and the Bartholomews published maps depicting the days or weeks it took to travel long distances, Albrecht further developed the idea to not only depict long distances and world travel but also smaller areas. Penck also created a series of maps that only depict the travel times of a certain transportation mode, for example Rail transport
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
. Isochrone maps are commonly used in the UK in connection with development control
Development Management, formerly known as planning control, or development control, is the element of the United Kingdom's system of town and country planning through which local government or the Secretary of State, regulates land use and new bu ...
. Isochrones are currently typically computed by via generating shortest-path trees on network graphs, and then generating a convex hull around the accessible nodes. Increases in computation, data storage, and improvements in algorithms have facilitated the rapid generation of isochrones. Recent techniques in visualization include linking travel times to network edges to show the paths accessible from a point rather than show the area accessible from a point.
Usage
Hydrology
Isochrone and related maps are used to show the time taken for runoff water within adrainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
to reach a lake, reservoir or outlet, assuming constant and uniform effective rainfall. An early example of this method was demonstrated by Clark in 1945.
Transport planning
Isochrone maps have been used in transportation planning since at least 1887. Isochrone maps in the context of transport planning are essentially maps of accessibility where travel time is used as the cost metric. Isochrone maps can be created for different modes of transportation, e.g. foot, bicycle, motor vehicle. Put simply, the output of an isochrone map for transport will show how far (in distance) is reachable from a start point, including the parameter of time. Such maps for private motor transport were widely used in a 1972 study into airport accessibility inHampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
, South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...
. At that time, their use was disadvantaged by being time-consuming to create.
The term isodapane map is used to refer to a map were the contour represent transportation ''cost'' instead of transportation ''time''.
General public
Journey time websites have been built using mapping technologies andopen data
Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license.
The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...
. Isochrones can be used by house hunters wishing to evaluate residential area
A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.
Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family res ...
s. An isochrone map of the London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The U ...
network was made available in 2007. A time-based travel map that went viral was thIsochronic World Map
produced using data from Rome2rio's routing engine for plane, train, bus, ferry and automobile. It c