[GIS] Calculating distances between consecutive points along rivers (polygon) using ArcGIS Desktop

arcgis-10.0arcgis-desktopdistancerivers

I have radio-tracking locations of semi-aquatic mammals. Now, I would like to calculate the distance between the consecutive locations using the river as the animals would swim (opposite to as the crow flies).

I have two different files:
a) Polypoint layer with all the tracking locations
b) Polygon layer with the rivers, streams and ponds (and some buffer around it)

These approaches seem not to work for me:
Network analyst (which seems to be most likely the easiest way): no license to create layer
The linear referencing tool to locate features on a route: My animals move once in a while a bit off the beaten water track, thus I added a buffer to the water bodies = polygon layer

I'm using ArcGIS Desktop 10.0.

Best Answer

You'll need river centreline and linear referencing to achieve this enter image description here If you have to repeat task multiple time, I'll post a script that fascilitate chainage computation without linear referencing

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[GIS] Calculating Distances between Field polygons via Road polygons using ArcGIS for Desktop

First, I think you will need to convert your road polygons to road centerlines, for which there is a Collapse Dual Lines To Centerline (Cartography) tool available, but it requires an Advanced level license.

Alternatively, to convert your polygons to lines you could try using Polygon To Raster (Conversion) followed by Raster to Polyline (Conversion).

Once you have your road network as line features ...

The ArcGIS for Desktop extension designed to model road networks is Network Analyst, but it can also do a lot more, and so may be overkill if your requirements are no greater than those that you have already described:

With the ArcGIS Network Analyst extension, you can answer questions like the following:

What is the quickest way to get from point A to point B?

Which houses are within five minutes of a fire station?

What market areas does a business cover?

A person wants to visit a store. Which branch should the potential customer visit to minimize travel time?

Which ambulances or patrol cars can respond quickest to an incident?

How can a fleet of delivery or service vehicles improve customer service and minimize transportation costs?

Where can a business open a store to maximize market share?

If a company has to downsize, which stores should it close to maintain the most overall demand?

What are live or historical traffic conditions like, and how do they affect my network analysis results?

[GIS] Finding distance between consecutive points using ArcGIS Desktop

Assuming that your points are in order, and that this works at 10.0 (I'm using 10.2):

Field Calculator Expression:

dist( !Shape! )

Field Calculator Code Block:

count = 0
def dist(shape):
    global prev
    global count
    point = arcpy.PointGeometry(shape.getPart(0))
    if count > 0:
        distance = point.distanceTo(prev)
    else:
        distance = 0
    prev = point
    count = count+1
    return distance

Parser: Python

Best Answer

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[GIS] Calculating Distances between Field polygons via Road polygons using ArcGIS for Desktop

[GIS] Finding distance between consecutive points using ArcGIS Desktop

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