Finding the Maximum Area Served (from a point location) Relative to Population

[JesseHopkins]

Hey everyone,

I am trying to find the area served by a point location (roughly 29 points) based on a population layer.  These points are facilities that serve the population during an outbreak event - they each have a max population served field. I need to create districts or boundaries around each facility showing the public where they should go durning an outbreak.  Using a Census Block layer, what is the best way to achieve this goal? I'm assuming Location-Allocation?

Edit: Distance from point would be considered a cost.  Want to find a boundary closest to the facility representing the maximum population allowed .

Thanks,

Jesse Hopkins

[JaySandhu · Accepted solution]

You can use the Location-Allocation with the Maximize Capacitated Coverage where the point's max population served is the capacity and the population at each census block centroids will be demand. You can solve the 29 points and then you will need to take each cluster of centroids assigned to one point and select their polygons and dissolve them. Do note that there is guarantee that you will get a nice contiguous polygon boundary as the optimal assignment is based on centroids point and trying to maximize the population served.
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/#/Location_allocation_analysis/004700000050000000/

Jay Sandhu

[JesseHopkins]

Wow thanks for the quick response!  I'll give this a try.

[JesseHopkins]

Jay,

I've got everything set up, just trying to get a few properties and parameters finalized.

Would I use the "Weight" property as my demand field in the Demand Points layer? Basically where would I set the Centroid Population as a paramater at?

Thanks,

Jesse Hopkins

[JaySandhu]

Yes, you map the population at your census blocks as "weight" when you load in these as demand locations.

The census centroids is not at parameter. By that I meant the demand points feature class. That would be the census block point feature class. These points are usually the "centroids" of the census block polygons.

Jay Sandhu