ExportersΒΆ

Since the main goal of the Tombolo Digital Connector is to connect urban data and urban models, there is a large set of urban analytics and model building that takes place outside of the connector. To allow for connections with external systems the Digital Connector provides support for exporting data and model output. Currently there are two data formats supported.

  • GeoJson is one of the most common data format for geographic data. It allows for easy integration between the Tombolo Digital Connector and Geographic Information Systems such as QGIS.
  • CSV is one of the most common data format for relational data. It allows for easy integration between the Connector and various data processing and analytics tools.

The workflow of exporting data is core functionality of the current state of the Tombolo Digital Connector. The user creates a recipe file where they describe the output data they would like to get. The recipe file consists of four parts:

  • Subjects: The user can specify the set of subjects for which data and models are to be exported. As an example, subjects can be all spatial network segments for a specific geographic area, all LSOAs within a certain geographic area, etc.
  • Data-sources: A list of data-sources needed to be imported in order to export the data. As an example, data-sources can be the Space Syntax Open Space Map (SSx OSM) for the Royal Borough of Greenwich, traffic counts for London from Department for Transport (DFT), etc.
  • Fields: A list of fields that are to be returned for each subject. As an example, for a set of spatial network segments the user could specify to export the connectivity of each segment according to SSx OSM, the nearest DfT traffic counts for that segment (if available) and a deprivation value for that segment disaggregated from the LSOA level deprivation scores from Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). In case a field is a transformation or a modelling field, the needed computation is performed at the time of exporting.
  • Exporter: The name of the exporter to be used. E.g. GeoJson or CSV.

Note that in the case of built-in model fields, the user does not need to specify the data-sources since they are already included in the built-in model recipe.