Our new paper studies how the road network of the City of Manila has expanded over the last century. The work quantifies the efficiency of network traversals across peripheral nodes.

• M.T. Cirunay and R.C. Batac, Evolution of the periphery of a self-organized road network, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 617, 128629, DOI:10.1016/j.physica.2023.128629 (2023).

Peripheral nodes are low-betweenness centrality nodes, making them very inaccessible topologically. For Manila, the sinuous periphery-to-periphery paths evolved from the eastern (away from the oldest bridges) to the western side of the city (new developments from reclaimed areas). Despite the complex evolution of the geographical network of roads, the distribution of betweenness centrality and the planarity of the network is preserved. Knowing the peripheral paths not only gives a quantitative characterization of the most difficult-to-navigate paths in the network, but also provides crucial insights for routing traffic to these hard-to-reach areas, especially during evacuation and/or relief efforts,  among others.

Dr. Michelle Cirunay has worked on urban road networks and other urban elements using road network data derived from satellite imagery, GIS databases, and from georeferenced raster images. Dr. Rene Batac has been interested in networked entities and other complex systems in nature and society.