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Allocating demands to service points using ET GeoWizards

Contents:

The purpose:

A very common GIS task is to analyze the location of service centers (hospitals, stores, cell phone towers etc.) based on the demand (people that are using the service).  The purpose of this document is to describe a method for allocation of customers (census polygons) to service centers (points) using ArcGIS (any license) and the functions available in ET GeoWizards. 

Methodology:

The process has three major steps:

  1. Delineating the service areas of the existing service centers using Thiessen Polygons:

    Thiessen polygons (also referred to as  Voronoi Diagram), define the individual regions of influence around each point of a set of points. Thiessen Polygons divide a plane, assigning the area to point in the set such that any location within a particular polygon is nearer to that polygon's point than to any other point.

  2. Assigning the demand from the census polygons to the service areas using the spatial intersection of the two sets of polygons.

    Example: Three source polygons with values 20,5 and 40 in the field to be transferred. 
    The target polygon overlaps a quarter of the first polygon, the entire second polygon and a half of the third polygon
    The value for the target polygon will be calculated using the formula:

    1/4*20 + 1*5 + 1/2*40 = 30

    Note that the assumption is that the value is evenly spread over the area which is not always the case. The more representative the source data is, the better the results will be.

  3.  Assigning the demand calculated for each service polygon back to its service center

ET GeoWizards functions to be used

Note that the links above are to the functions available via the interface of ET GeoWizards. If the procedure is to be performed in the Model Builder - refer to the corresponding tools available in the ET GeoWizards ToolBox. If performed via a VBA script - refer to ET GeoWizards Scripting

The task

Two input datasets - a polygon dataset with population attribute and point dataset representing the available service centers. We need to assign for each point the population that will be serviced by this point

ZIP code dataset for California and some Service points

The ZIP code polygons have a population attribute

The Solution

Step1: Build Thiessen polygons.
In order the entire area to be covered, the "Use buffered convex hull" option with large enough buffer distance has to be used
Step2: Clip the Thiessen polygons with the ZIP code polygons
The resulting service area for a smaller area The Service area overlaid with the Demand polygons 
Step 3: Transfer the population attributes from the ZIP polygons to the Thiessen polygons. Use the "Count" (sum proportion) option Step 4: Transfer attributes from the Thiessen polygons to the Service points using Spatial Join.

How to get it done?

ET GeoWizards  offers three ways of achieving the above procedure

  • Via the User Interface - just perform the steps one by one using the Wizards available
  • With a simple VBA script - many of the functions of ET GeoWizards are available for use within VBA scripts or custom applications written in any COM language. 
  • Create a Geoprocessing Model in the Model Builder (ArcGIS 9.0 and above only) using the ET GeoWizards geoprocessing tools made available in version 9.2. A model performing the task is included in the download of ET GeoWizards  for ArcGIS 9.x

A diagram of the process:

 

See ET GeoWizards User Guide for more information

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Copyright: Ianko Tchoukanski