Calculate straight-line distance and, optionally, adjust the calculations with a barriers or surface raster.A simple airport noise model may use distance from runway as an intermediate step.ĭistance analysis can be divided conceptually into the following related functional areas:.During an oil spill, identify all bird nesting sites within 5,000 meters of the spill.In a helicopter rescue of an injured hiker, determine the closest hospital.In a deer suitability model, calculate how far each location is from a stream so the resulting distance surface can be used as an input criterion.A planning department is determining if a proposed housing development is within the legal buffer of a wetland.Straight-line distance is one of the most common distance calculations and it addresses a wide range of applications such as the following:

Another way straight-line distance can be altered is when incorporating the actual distance encountered when accounting for the ups and downs in the surface. Straight-line distance can be altered when a barrier is present. For each nonsource cell, the tool will calculate the straight-line distance to the closest source location. In its simplest form, you only need to specify the source locations. It is the distance a bird or airplane would travel between the two points when flying above the surface.ĭistance Accumulation is the primary tool for calculating straight-line distance. Straight-line distance does not account for the surface between the two points. Straight-line distance is the distance that you measure with a ruler on a paper map. It is the shortest distance between two points. Straight-line Euclidean distance is the distance that typically comes to mind when you think of distance analysis.

Straight-line distance calculation and output.Straight-line distance analysis examples.

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