topic Re: Minimum Distance btwn Points with Create Spatially Balanced Points? in ArcGIS GeoStatistical Analyst Questions

Minimum Distance btwn Points with Create Spatially Balanced Points?

NathanJones — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:41:13 GMT

Is it possible to set a minimum distance between points using the Create Spatially Balanced Points tool?

Re: Minimum Distance btwn Points with Create Spatially Balanced Points?

EricKrause — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:17:27 GMT

Not directly. If you're using a constant inclusion probability raster, the algorithm will place points as far away from each other as possible. So, the distance to the nearest neighbor will get smaller if you output more points. That distance can get arbitrarily small if you output enough points.

The only way to ensure that the points will be far apart is to keep running the tool with different numbers of points until you get the separation distance that you want. If you're stuck to a particular number of points, there isn't much you can do.

Re: Minimum Distance btwn Points with Create Spatially Balanced Points?

SteveLynch — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:28:20 GMT

Also, there can only be one point that falls within the cell of the input inclusion raster. I.e if your inclusion raster has a cell size of 100m, then the minimum distance between points cannot be less than 100m. Also, if the inclusion raster has 1000 cells, then the max number of points cannot exceed 1000.

You could, therefore, Resample your inclusion raster.

-Steve