Merge of line and polygon layer

JallouliJallouli

Hello,

I have two layers : Rivers (as a polyline shapefile) and lakes (as a polygon shapefile).

I want to create a new layer of proximity factor to the streams (Rivers and lakes) which varies by intervals from 5 (near the streams) to 1 (the most distant zones).

I used Merge and Union tools. Also I transformed these layers to Raster and I used Euclidean Distance in ArcGIS 10.2... but these solutions didn't work.

Can you show me which solution is the most appropriate to this study case ?

Thank you in advance

XanderBakker

Hello,

I have two layers : Rivers (as a polyline shapefile) and lakes (as a polygon shapefile).

I want to create a new layer of proximity factor to the streams (Rivers and lakes) which varies by intervals from 5 (near the streams) to 1 (the most distant zones).

I used Merge and Union tools. Also I transformed these layers to Raster and I used Euclidean Distance in ArcGIS 10.2... but these solutions didn't work.

Can you show me which solution is the most appropriate to this study case ?

Thank you in advance

Hi Jallouli,

There are different solutions to this problem. In case you do this the raster way (Spatial Analyst), you will have to convert the rivers and lakes to rasters (separately). Before doing that it maybe wise to add a new field and fill it with the value 1. Next you will have to create a new raster combining the "rivers" and "lakes" rasters using a Con statement that looks something like:
water = Con(IsNull([rivers]), [lakes], [rivers])

After this you can use the water raster in the Euclidean Distance tool and finish with a reclassify to create the intervals.

It is easier though to do this in vector format. Since it is not possible to merge different geometry types into the same featureclass, you should choose a geometry type that best represents both types of data (lakes and rivers). Since a river has a surface, you can buffer the rivers with a small value (best to choose half the average river width). This results in a polygon featureclass. Merge the buffered rivers with the lakes to create a single polygon featureclass (let's call this "water"). Now buffer the "water" polygons with the "Multiple Ring Buffer" tool and specify the distances you wish. This method is more accurate and less work.

Kind regards,

Xander