Closest Park Analysis

[FraserM]

Hello,

Say I have 5 friends all in different locations. They are represented by points. I want to find the closest park (represented also by a point, representing the entrance) to all the friends, in other words the most convenient park for everyone to go too. 

Crucially, I want to achieve this ALONG A NETWORK. I have fiddled with the closest facility analysis layer but that just returns the closest park to each friend, i.e. it returns 5 parks not 1. 

I am fairly sure there is a way to do the above... but I cannot find it on google. So help is appreciated 🙂 thanks.

[DevinLavigne]

You could solve this a few different ways. I would run an analysis of distance from each person to each park. Then sum the distance totals by park. The park with the lowest total distance is technically "closest" to everyone, but still may be furthest away for one of your friends.  I was thinking another method would be similar except instead of distance you rank the parks for each person based on distance and then average the ranks. I think the results would be the same, but in this approach you could remove the farthest and closest parks from everyone's ranking - so its not too convenient or too far for one of your friends. This approach does have the potential to eliminate all the parks.

[FraserM]

Interesting I like the sound of the first method... I will have a look in to this tomorrow, thanks 🙂

[DanPatterson]

Make OD Cost Matrix Analysis Layer (Network Analyst)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

might be useful since you could find the park that minimizes the travel "costs" for all not just one person

[FraserM]

I will have a look in to this tomorrow, thank you 🙂

[JaySandhu]

You can use the Location-Allocation solver. Make the  park entrances as facilities and the friend locations as demand. Solve for 1. It will find the location of the park that minimizes overall travel time from all the friend's. However the solution may not be equitable to everyone as some may have to travel more than others. You can put in a travel time cutoff and try to find another solution. This solver has many options, so you can see what gives you a good solution.

More info here: Location-allocation analysis layer—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Jay Sandhu

[FraserM]

i will give this a go too, thank you. i shall reply in due course