spoorsegment

A spoorsegment is a unit used in geospatial modelling and railway engineering to represent a discrete portion of a route, track, or path. The term combines spoor (a track or trace) with segment, signaling that it is a defined portion of a longer line or trajectory. In practice, spoorsegments are treated as geometric primitives with associated metadata.

A spoorsegment is typically defined by a start and end point, forming a polyline that follows the underlying route. Common attributes include length, bearing, and a geometry field containing the coordinate sequence. Additional metadata may cover time-related information (such as start and end timestamps), velocity profiles, confidence scores for position data, jurisdiction or ownership, maintenance status, and other domain-specific attributes.

Derivation and use: spoorsegments are often created by partitioning continuous line strings or GPS traces into meaningful units, which can be uniform in length or defined by natural features, intersections, or maintenance intervals. This segmentation supports linear referencing, map matching, route analysis, and maintenance planning by enabling queries and statistics on individual segments rather than the entire route.

Applications: in GIS workflows, spoorsegments facilitate traffic modelling, routing and optimization, and historical analysis of movement patterns. In railway contexts, they assist in track geometry surveys, maintenance scheduling, and reliability assessments. In wildlife or transport studies, spoorsegments help reconstruct paths and compare performance or habitat use across defined sections.

See also: spoor, segment, polyline, route segment, linear referencing, GPS trace.

References: for broader context, consult geospatial data modeling sources on linear primitives and route segmentation; railway infrastructure documentation on track segment management.