Comparing the performance of Dinamica EGO versus ModelBuilder of ArcGis and MacroModeler of IDRISI

least cost pathway calculation

Thanks to its innovative framework http://www.csr.ufmg.br/dinamica/training/2_EGO_framework.pdf, which includes 64-bit native version, parallel processing using a hybrid method named task + work stealing and smart management of data flow, Dinamica EGO can far surpass performance of most common GIS. Here we show a comparison of a least cost pathway calculation implemented on Dinamica EGO versus the same model on ModelBuilder of ArcGis and MacroModeler of IDRISI.

The example consists of two set of maps extracted from IDRISI tutorial: land use map (worcwest), source map (newplant) and destination map (powerline), first one at 15 meter resolution composed of 960 columns x 960 rows and the second at 5 meter resolution composed of 2880 columns x 2880 rows (respectively, folders resource and resource5). Dinamica EGO models are in folders ego_15m and ego_5m; we made available models with 2, 3 and optimum solution. In general, only two to three passes are needed to approximate to an optimum solution. Respective models implemented on MacroModeler are located in Idrisi_15m and Idrisi_5m (you might need to specify the working directory before running the Idrisi model), and folder arcgis contains the ModelBuilder model. (Go to Arctool; you will need to add the model as a toolbox and then click on it to open and run the ModelBuilder model).

Figures below shows the pathways calculated with three passes and another with optimum solution using Dinamica EGO as well as the pathways output from MacroModeler and ModelBuilder. Table below show the performance figures for the three platforms. To run the tests, we used a laptop VAIO Intel i5 CPU with 8 GB of RAM, solid state disk, and Windows Seven 64 bits. Dinamica version was 1.8, IDRISI version was IDRISI 32, v.2 and Taiga. ArcGis version was 9.3.

For the 15 meter models, Dinamica EGO model using 3 passes was 120 times faster than IDRISI MacroModeler and 264 times faster than ArcGIS. For the 5 meter version, Dinamica EGO model with two passes took only 6 minutes, while both MacroModeler and ModelBuilder weren't unable to run the model. This advantage can be even much higher as Dinamica EGO models run faster on multicore computer. For example, on a laptop DELL Alienware with 8 cores, the processing time of the model with 15 meters and two passes takes less than 2 second, almost doubling performance, whereas the computing time for the other GIS platforms increased due to slower access to disk.

*TEST RESULTS**

Spatial resolution 15m 5m
EGO 3 passes 3 sec 31 sec
EGO 3 passes
EGO optimum solution
Idrisi MacroModeler
ArcGIS ModelBuilder

spatial resolution
15 m	5 m

Dinamica EGO 2 passes 3 seconds 31 seconds Dinamica EGO 3 passes 5 seconds 46 seconds Dinamica EGO 2 optimum solution 38 seconds 6 minutes 3 sec. Idrisi MacroModeler 10 minutes crashed ArcGis ModelBuilder 22 minutes crashed

Check out yourself this comparison downloading the test data and running the models on your computer. Any doubts please contact dinamica@csr.ufmg.br.