Page 470 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Martín Cabo, Sergio. Mesa Santos, Luis Eduardo. Palacio Vijande, Iván.

Stations layer consists of an unique identification code, name and the country they belong
to.

To process the geographic information, it has been used software ArcGis (10.3 version)
and QuantumGIS (2.12. version). These Geographic Information Systems include spatial
analysis tools, advanced processing of data and they allow performing complex digital
mapping.

3. Methodology

The methodological process consists of several phases. The first step is to get information
on the current situation of high-speed railway lines and sections worldwide. These data
have been obtained through the “High-speed Lines in the World. Statistical Yearbook”,
published annually by the International Union of Railways (UIC). It is an “open access”
report in MS Excel format that can be downloaded from its website www.uic.org.

This Excel database has been modified and edited so that it can be compatible with a
Geographic Information System (GIS).
Afterwards, a geo-referenced database is established in a GIS, defining the same projection
and coordinate system for all the information layers to be added so that they can be
overlapped, edited and compared.
Once the layer is established, it is necessary to start the digitization of the high-speed
lines in service and, as much as possible, under construction, with the support of satellite
image display platforms (Google Satellite or comparables), trying to draw as closely
as possible the railway lines. This platform operates as just another layer, and can be
downloaded in the GIS itself. This layer will be the unique raster layer in the project.

Likewise, the location of the high-speed stations is referred by point layers, taking as
reference the passenger building or, failing this, a nearby building, as mentioned above.

To complement the geographic information, other layers considered of interest are
aggregated. For instance: administrative boundaries, country poligons, large bodies of
water, and so on.

The result will be the creation of .shp type files, in vector format, that makes it possible
to be exported to other types of format and to other softwares.

Once the digitization is carried out the next step is the aggregation of data to these
geometries to enrich the geographic database and facilitate its subsequent cartography
treatment. This aggregation can be done through contributions from the UIC Statistical
Yearbook and/or other sources. This information can refer to multiple fields: state of
implementation, total railway length, maximum speed, among others.

This data will be the attributes of lines/sections and train station layers. On the figures
below we can see the structure of the tables.

468 360.revista de alta velocidad