Closest Park Analysis

Question

Hello,

Say I have 5 friends all in different locations. They are represented by points. I want to find the closest park (represented also by a point, representing the entrance) to all the friends, in other words the most convenient park for everyone to go too.

Crucially, I want to achieve this ALONG A NETWORK. I have fiddled with the closest facility analysis layer but that just returns the closest park to each friend, i.e. it returns 5 parks not 1.

I am fairly sure there is a way to do the above... but I cannot find it on google. So help is appreciated 🙂 thanks.

FraserM · Answer

i will give this a go too, thank you. i shall reply in due course

JaySandhu · Answer

You can use the Location-Allocation solver. Make the  park entrances as facilities and the friend locations as demand. Solve for 1. It will find the location of the park that minimizes overall travel time from all the friend's. However the solution may not be equitable to everyone as some may have to travel more than others. You can put in a travel time cutoff and try to find another solution. This solver has many options, so you can see what gives you a good solution.

More info here: Location-allocation analysis layer—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Jay Sandhu

FraserM · Answer

Interesting I like the sound of the first method... I will have a look in to this tomorrow, thanks 🙂