Design rule purpose
The purpose of this design rule is to configure penalties for going at some distance from an existing constraint or linear feature. Going along certain corridors can be often beneficial from access, planning and consenting point of view. On the other hand, avoiding certain corridors such as busy roads or scenic routes leads to less public opposition, damage to landscape or safety concerns. This design rule allows to configure this behaviour with respect to features in a dedicated dataset and allows the user to configure a system which will avoid being in proximity of or maximise being in proximity of the provided dataset features.
How to configure
The example below shows how the design rule works in practice. Please note that the example is using linear features (roads) but any kind of constraint can work in this design rule.
A dedicated dataset which specifies which features are to be considered as 'constraints with buffers' has to be uploaded separately.
This dataset might contain features present in other datasets - which is perfectly fine.
If the design rule is set up to stay close to features, the penalty should be small (or zero) when very close / close to dataset features and increase with the distance.
If the design rule is set up to stay away from features, the penalty should be large when very close / close to dataset features and decrease with the distance.
Important notes
This design rule can be configured to either stay close to constraints or far from constraints (depending on how the penalties are set up). It can only do one, however! It is important to not over-penalise for being close or far as this might lead to incorrect results.
In case of setting this design rule to follow linear feature corridors (like existing RoWs like energy corridors), do expect that Optioneer might struggle to follow the path exactly. There might be occasional crossings of the existing asset which should be ignored. A manual intervention might be required to get a precise alignment.
Input / output summary
Input parameters
This design rule requires a dedicated 'slope' dataset which has to be uploaded by the user as a raster file.
Name | Default value | Unit |
'Very close' distance range maximum penalty value | 0, 30, 0
| meters, meters, penalty points |
'Close' distance range maximum penalty value | 30, 150, 1 | meters, meters, penalty points |
'Acceptable' distance range maximum penalty value | 150, 600, 3 | meters, meters, penalty points |
'Significant' distance range maximum penalty value | 600, 100000, 4 | meters, meters, penalty points |
Output parameters
Name | Example value | Unit |
Total length through 'very close' distance range | 1000 | meters |
Total length through 'close' distance range | 800 | meters |
Total length through 'acceptable' distance range | 400 | meters |
Total length through 'significant' distance range | 1000 | meters |
Total length through 'Very difficult' slope range | 100 | meters |
Total 'constraints with buffers' penalty | 17800 | points |
This design rule can also provide visualisation of results along the centerline.
The plot can be accessed via Vertical Profile Chart > Composition > Penalty. The penalty will be mixed with other sources of penalty points, giving a quick insight into main risks related to the option being studied.