least cost path with multiple, sequential points

Question

Hi all

I have a feature class containing point locations for an individual fish. I would like to calculate the least cost path between these points sequentially, as they appear in the attributes table, so my end result is a path connecting the points. I have a cost surface ready to use, but am unsure how to use this tool with multiple points (ie A to B, B to C, C to D, etc), rather than a simple A to B scenario.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Melanie

curtvprice · Answer

I have many points in my feature class, and multiple feature classes for different individuals, so I think if doing multiple cost paths is the only way to generate a path through all the points, I would definitely need a model or python script to make this method feasible. Unfortunately, I have no experience with python script writing....
Any further tips?

I suggest working out this analysis for the first two features by running tools interactively. Once you've done that, you'll have the problem a little better defined and know which tools will work, how the environments need to be set for the tool to run correctly, etc.. Then, you can also build a simple model to accomplish your task, ie "given an input point layer, a source, and destination feature ID, calculate the by-cell cost path raster."

This model could then be run from another (looping) model or python script. Breaking up the analysis into pieces like this makes the task a lot easier.

MelanieShapiera · Answer

Thanks for the reply.

I have many points in my feature class, and multiple feature classes for different individuals, so I think if doing multiple cost paths is the only way to generate a path through all the points, I would definitely need a model or python script to make this method feasible. Unfortunately, I have no experience with python script writing....
Any further tips?

curtvprice · Answer

If you definitely want a sequential path, doing multiple least cost path analyses and combining them at the end using Mosaic (or Cell Statistics with MAX, ignoring NODATA) would do the trick.

It may require a python script to iteratively select each set of points and run the analysis.