An overview of the Distance toolset

Available with Spatial Analyst license.

The Distance tools allow you to perform analysis that accounts for either straight-line (Euclidean) or weighted distance. Distance can be weighted by a simple cost (friction) surface, or in ways that account for vertical and horizontal restrictions to movement.

Distance analysis can be performed with the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension.

The following table lists the available Distance tools and provides a brief description of each.

ToolDescription

Corridor

Calculates the sum of accumulative costs for two input accumulative cost rasters.

Distance Accumulation

Calculates accumulated distance for each cell to sources, allowing for straight-line distance, cost distance, true surface distance, as well as vertical and horizontal cost factors.

Distance Allocation

Calculates distance allocation for each cell to the provided sources based on straight-line distance, cost distance, true surface distance, as well as vertical and horizontal cost factors.

Optimal Path As Line

Calculates the optimal path from a source to a destination as a line.

Optimal Path As Raster

Calculates the optimal path from a source to a destination as a raster.

Optimal Region Connections

Calculates the optimal connectivity network between two or more input regions.

Tools in the Distance toolset

In ArcGIS Pro 2.5 and later, the recommended tools for distance analysis are listed in the table above. In versions earlier than ArcGIS Pro 2.5, distance analysis was performed using other tools; these tools are still available in the Legacy toolset.

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