Find nearby cities by a driving distance radius

[CaioNascimento]

Hi,

I'm studying several GIS tools to solve one specific need:

Given x/y coordinates of one city, I want a JSON result that lists only cities (not facilities) that are nearby the specified city, within a driving distance radius (e.g. 100km).

1 - How can I get this kind of result from ArcGIS API?
2 - Which subscription plan should I purchase only to have this data (I don't want map rendering)

[RaymondHuang]

Hi Caio Nascimento,

Essentially, you need a Network Analysis service to receive in your XY point and return you a drivetime polygon.
there is a sample service here that does that for US: http://sampleserver3.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Network/USA/NAServer/Service%20Area

Take a look at this example that shows you the 1,2 & 3 minute drivetime polygon for a point that you click.
http://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/samples/gp_servicearea/

Typically, we look at a reachability based on time. If it's 100km you are interested in, to test this service, put in around 86min assuming driving at 70km/h.

This settles for you the area polygon in json geometry. Next for the cities, check out the feature service here: http://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Cities/FeatureServer

Such a feature service supports spatial queries. You may use the polygon geometry as input and set the spatial relation to INTERSECT via http://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Cities/FeatureServer/0/query

This will return you a list of point geometry and their fields for you to display it on your map.

In terms of subscription, I believe for testing purposes, you need to subscript an account to ArcGIS for Developer. This gives you access to many services which includes the Service Area Service. The service area service produces polygons that define the area measured over a period of time or a given distance from a specified location based on the underlying road network. The polygons are then typically used to summarize an external source of information such as the number of customers within the drive time.

Hope this helps. Do reach out if you still have doubts.

Cheers,
Raymond