Rutetrasser

Rutetrasser is a term used in geographic information systems (GIS) and transportation planning to describe a method for tracing routes across a rasterized cost surface in order to identify potential paths between points. The approach combines elements of graph-based routing with raster cost-distance analysis, allowing route exploration in landscapes where traversal cost varies spatially and explicit network graphs may be incomplete or dynamic.

Etymology and usage. The name rutetrasser is commonly interpreted as a portmanteau of route and tracer; it may appear in the literature in slightly different spellings. In practice, rutetrasser is described as a family of procedures rather than a single fixed algorithm, and its exact implementation can vary between software packages.

Method. A typical rutetrasser workflow starts with a raster layer where each cell encodes a traversal cost (for example, terrain ruggedness, land cover, or elevation) and a source-destination pair. The method propagates a cumulative cost field from the origin, using least-cost principles similar to Dijkstra or A* on a grid. The process yields one or more candidate routes, which can be constrained by barriers, terrain penalties, or compatibility with existing vector networks. Outputs usually include route geometry, a cost surface, and ancillary attributes such as travel time estimates or reliability indicators.

Variants and applications. Variants may include multi-criteria rutetrasser that incorporate additional objectives (safety, scenery, or land-use restrictions) or probabilistic versions that account for uncertainty. Applications span urban planning, outdoor recreation route design, disaster response, wildlife corridor analysis, and logistics in heterogeneous environments.

Limitations. The method can be computationally intensive at high resolutions, sensitive to raster resolution and cost assignments, and challenging to integrate with complex, multi-layer networks.

See also. Least-cost path analysis, cost-distance analysis, raster analysis, network routing.

References. For further reading, consult GIS texts on raster-based route analysis and cost-distance methods.