Search

ABSTRACTInfrastructure networks play a key role in supporting modern city activities. Future technologies will require networks such as hydrogen fuel pipelines and quantum internet networks, which should be feasible and sustainable. This study proposes a method that connects given demand points by a cost-effective network, which has a low total length that enables a low construction cost and a low total detour rate that leads to high operational effectiveness. The proposed method configures the network from scratch by mimicking human walking track superposition on a green space. Walking tracks are expected to be cost-effective because of the self-organization of pedestrians walking on a short path and a path on which others have walked. The resulting networks are equivalent to or more cost-effective than proximity graphs considered cost-effective and have geometric features similar to and different from them. The method requires two dominant parameters: initial walking resistance and ground vegetation recovery speed. A large number of networks with varying parameters approximate Pareto solutions between cost and effectiveness. Increasing either parameter generates a network with a smaller total length and a larger total detour rate. This adjustability is convenient for decision-makers faced with constraints of the construction cost and operational effectiveness.