topic Re: Comparing two layers of points in Geoprocessing Questions

Comparing two layers of points

HarrietA — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 13:59:41 GMT

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have two layers containing data points (one human population and one species occurrence) and was looking for a way of studying whether there was a relationship between the two using ArcMap (i.e. does the presence of humans reduce the likelihood of the animal species being present). What would you suggest would be the best tool to do this?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Comparing two layers of points

DanPatterson_Retired — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 14:02:47 GMT

look at the distance between using the Near tool first comes to mind...a large average distance would suggest avoidance

Re: Comparing two layers of points

JoshThompson1 — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 15:20:21 GMT

Harriet,

Before you proceed, I would think that you may need to consider your input data. For example, you mentioned that the human population is represented as point data. A population value of say 5000 in and of itself may not provide enough information regarding population density. That is to say, over what area does the 5000 cover? If the population density information were available as polygonal data (for example, 5000 within the one city boundary, 2000 within the adjacent city boundary, etc), then one possible approach may be to do a simple overlay (IDENTITY) of the human population density onto the animal species point data. Then you could use this as a starting point in your analysis.

Josh