Return to original OSMnx graph from simplified graph with edge geometries

Question

Is it possible to generate the original OSMnx graph from the simplified graph (which has the edge geometries preserved)?

For instance:

import osmnx as ox

place = 'Piedmont, California, USA'
G = ox.graph_from_place(place, network_type='drive', simplify=False)
G_simple = ox.simplify_graph(G)

G_simple has the original edge geometries of G stored as "geometry" on the simplified edges:

simple_nodes, simple_edges = ox.graph_to_gdfs(G_simple)
print(simple_edges.iloc[10].geometry)

# LINESTRING (-122.2429303 37.8205234, -122.2426591 37.8207235, -122.2424827 37.820899, -122.2421775 37.8212363, -122.2420372 37.8214758, -122.2420254 37.8215051, -122.2419343 37.8217305, -122.2418551 37.8218894, -122.2415415 37.8222826)

Would it be possible to generate the original graph G from the simplified one? I have many simplified graphs stored on disk, but unfortunately cannot regenerate the unsimplified graphs, so I need to find a way to "unsimplify" them.

Answer 1

This is a one-way destruction of information built into OSMnx. You could try to write your own script, but it would be nontrivial. You'd have to identify each vertex in each geometry of each edge, create a new node there, and break the edge into two at that vertex.