82 Assessment of CentrAlity ProPerties of Akure roAd network Seun Daniel Oluwajana 1 , Olufkayo Oluwaseun Aderinlewo 2 , Adebayo Oladipo Owolabi 3 , Silvana Vivian Croope 4 1, 2, 3 Federal University of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, Akure, Nigeria 4 Delaware Department of Transportation, Delaware, USA Received 31 July 2012; accepted 15 November 2012 Abstract: Tree 1-square mile of diferent urban street networks were extracted from Akure road network and developed into primal graphs. Te resulting edges and nodes in the network were described by their distance matrix. Shortest paths across the nodes were calculated as well as the centrality measures. Te edge length distribution analysis of the network studied showed a single peak distribution found in cities with a patern realized over a historical process, which was out of the control of any central planning agency. Further investigation into the correlation between centrality measures showed that they captured diferent properties with correspondingly low values. Degree centrality was found to be correlated over the network. Tis was linked to the spatial restraint imposed on the network by land use. Information centrality values revealed that not all nodes in a network perform the same function since the network was found to perform beter when some nodes were deactivated. However, analysis carried out revealed that the betweeness centrality and information centrality values, which capture the load and the ability of a network to respond to deactivation of a network, were of utmost importance in assessing the network. Keywords: graph theory, road network, primal graph, centrality measures, self-organized cities. 2 Corresponding author: faderin2010@yahoo.com 1. Introduction Transportation systems of regional and national extent are composed of networks of interconnected facilities, services and elements that function together as a whole. Terefore, a road network can be viewed as an assemblage of components and subsystems that work together to perform the same function. Hence, all transportation projects must be analyzed with due consideration for their position within a modal or intermodal network and their impacts on network performance (Bronzini, 2004). Transportation networks inherently have a node and link structure where the links represent linear features providing for movement such as highways and rail lines, and the nodes represent intersections. Tus, the principal data content of a node is its name or number and location. Links usually have characteristics such as length, directionality, number of travel lanes and functional class. Roads are essential elements in topological maps, navigational maps and other types of maps. A road network consists of a lot of roads that are interwoven together (Zhang, 2004). Te road network is a topological graph for expressing road information and is composed of nodes and edges: nodes indicate characteristic points such UDC: 519.17:656.1.07 DOI: htp://dx.doi.org/10.7708/ijte.2013.3(1).08 Oluwajana S. D. et al. Assessment of Centrality Properties of Akure Road Network