Cost Path Output Raster Results

Question

What does the 'PATHCOST' field mean in the attribute table of the cost path tool output? How is it calculated? Thanks.

XanderBakker · Answer

What does the 'PATHCOST' field mean in the attribute table of the cost path tool output? How is it calculated? Thanks.

Hi Joseph,

The PATHCOST field holds the actual cost to travel to each destination. Each cell that belongs to a path will hold the value of the cost distance raster at the destination. In case a path is shared by more than one destination, the value will be 0.

The result can be travel time in case you used a "time per distance unit" raster as cost raster. See the Help section:
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/...0000025000000/

The cost assigned to each cell represents the cost per unit distance  for  moving through the cell. The final  value  per cell is the cell  size  multiplied by the cost value.  For example, if the cost raster has  a  cell size of 30, and a particular cell has a cost value of 10, the  final  cost of that cell is 300 units.

Kind regards,

Xander