topic Finding Closest Distance Between Points in Geoprocessing Questions https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356886#M12353 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><SPAN>Hi,</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>I have a .shp file representing global shipping ports. Basically I want to find which two ports or points are closest. </SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>This is the first stage of an analysis and I would be happy to settle with this. On the off chance someone has a solution however, there is a slightly more complicated dynamic:</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>The crux of the matter is that the ports have to be closest to each other on the sea, so any distances calculated over land wouldn't suffice.. I'm assuming I would have to use come continental shapefile as a barrier to distance calculations, but I'm in the dark as to how I should go about this.</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>Finally, the port data I have is incredibly accurate and the majority of continental .shp files I have downloaded so far aren't. So when I try and marry the two together quite often the sea ports appear to fall inland on some of the continents. If anyone can recommend a high resolution continent shapefile that would correspond with the accuracy of my port data I would also really appreciate it.</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>Thanks,</SPAN><BR /><SPAN>Jonty Knox</SPAN></BODY></HTML> Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:33:58 GMT JontyKnox 2011-09-30T13:33:58Z Finding Closest Distance Between Points https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356886#M12353 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><SPAN>Hi,</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>I have a .shp file representing global shipping ports. Basically I want to find which two ports or points are closest. </SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>This is the first stage of an analysis and I would be happy to settle with this. On the off chance someone has a solution however, there is a slightly more complicated dynamic:</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>The crux of the matter is that the ports have to be closest to each other on the sea, so any distances calculated over land wouldn't suffice.. I'm assuming I would have to use come continental shapefile as a barrier to distance calculations, but I'm in the dark as to how I should go about this.</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>Finally, the port data I have is incredibly accurate and the majority of continental .shp files I have downloaded so far aren't. So when I try and marry the two together quite often the sea ports appear to fall inland on some of the continents. If anyone can recommend a high resolution continent shapefile that would correspond with the accuracy of my port data I would also really appreciate it.</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>Thanks,</SPAN><BR /><SPAN>Jonty Knox</SPAN></BODY></HTML> Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:33:58 GMT https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356886#M12353 JontyKnox 2011-09-30T13:33:58Z Re: Finding Closest Distance Between Points https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356887#M12354 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><SPAN>I'd suggest treating this as a </SPAN><A href="http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Creating_the_least_cost_path/009z00000021000000/">Least Cost Path Analysis</A><SPAN>, where travelling over land is prohibitively costly.</SPAN></BODY></HTML> Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:06:40 GMT https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356887#M12354 DarrenWiens2 2011-09-30T21:06:40Z Re: Finding Closest Distance Between Points https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356888#M12355 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><SPAN>That worked fine for that element of the project but I have another similar step that I'm struggling with: </SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>Essentially I have two different Point .shp files and I need to find the nearest neighbors to one point shapefile using the other. For example, I have 7 species sightings at various locations and I need to identify the nearest ports to those species sightings. The nearest neighbor tools in Arc only allow for one .shp file input, not the two .shp files I require in this case.</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN>Thanks, Jonty</SPAN></BODY></HTML> Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:04:56 GMT https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356888#M12355 JontyKnox 2011-10-12T14:04:56Z Re: Finding Closest Distance Between Points https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356889#M12356 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><SPAN>Have you tried the </SPAN><A href="http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00080000001q000000.htm">Near </A><SPAN>tool? Requires ArcInfo.</SPAN></BODY></HTML> Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:50:31 GMT https://community.esri.com/t5/geoprocessing-questions/finding-closest-distance-between-points/m-p/356889#M12356 DarrenWiens2 2011-10-13T17:50:31Z