COVENANT UNIVERSITY

PROXIMITY
MATCHING
ESM431

Group members
David Jagun
18CL024839
Adelowo Mofe
18CL024831
Godswill Okeke
17CL023298
What is Proximity matching?
Proximity matching is a class of spatial analysis  tool and algorithms
that employ geographic distance as a central principle. Proximity
matching is a crucial tool for business marketing and site selection.
Marketers analyze demographics and infrastructure to determine trade
areas. Trade areas are continuous geographic areas around a site that
generate the majority of revenue.
Proximity matching is a study using location intelligence, mapping
software, to calculate the distances between customer/prospect
locations, to your location(s) (retail store, bank, restaurant, dealer, or
sales reps) as the first step in building an understanding of
trade/sales/service area(s). An analysis typically includes a report and
map showing the relationship of the data and often includes
competitor locations in the analysis.
Proximity matching is one way of analyzing locations of features by
measuring the distance between them and other features in the area.

How does Proximity matching work?

 The Proximity toolset contains tools that

determine the proximity of features within a
coverage or between two coverages. These tools
 can identify features that are closest to one
another and calculate the distances around and
between them.
 The Proximity tools can create entire new
shapefiles from your calculations, or just add
attributes to already existing coverages.

Popular uses include;

i. Zoning
ii. Watershed studies
iii.Demographics

Proximity matching tools

1. Buffer: Creates a new coverage of buffers around

specified features (points, lines, polygons, or
nodes) in a coverage.
2. Near:  Computes the distance from every point in
input feature to the nearest input feature point,
line, or node. Results are recorded in the output
coverage point attribute table.
3. Point distance:  Computes distance from each
point in a feature to all points in the same
coverage or a different coverage within a
specified radius.
4. Point node: Transfers attributes from a point
feature class to a node feature class.
5. Select by location: Selects features from a
target feature class within a given distance of
(or using other spatial relationships) the input
features.
6. Thiessen polygons:  Converts a point coverage to
a coverage of Thiessen or proximal polygons. Each
polygon contains only one input point, and any
location within a polygon is closer to its
associated point than to the point of any other
polygon.
Techniques in Proximity matching

1. Buffers: a tool for determining the region that is within a

specified distance of a set of geographic features.
2. Transport network analysis:  a set of algorithms and tools for
solving a number of distance routing problems when travel is
constrained to a network of one-dimensional lines, such as roads
and utility networks. For example, the common task of finding
the shortest route from point A to point B.
3. Location analysis: a set of (usually heuristic) algorithms for
finding the optimal locations of a limited set of points (e.g.,
store locations) that minimize the aggregate distance to another
set of points (e.g., customer locations).
4. Cost distance analysis:  an algorithm for finding optimal routes
through continuous space that minimize distance and/or other
location dependent costs.

Uses of Proximity matching

Proximity analysis tools are very useful in a variety of
settings. Some of the uses include:

 Buffer
 could be used to determine safe distances for
animal runoff between cow pastures and rivers
feeding reservoirs
 Near
 could show how many grocery stores are located
within a 1 mile radius (walking distance) of the
city bus route
 Point Distance
 Compare distances between businesses (such as
theaters, fast food restaurants) and locations of
community problems (litter, broken windows,
spray-paint graffiti), limiting the search to one
mile to look for local relationships.
 Find which public parking lot is closer to your
favorite music venue/bar on the Downtown Mall
 Thiessen Polygons
 Due to the development of
more advanced proximity tools (such as the ones
we’ve looked at today), thiessen polygons are
used less frequently in environmental and
planning jobs today.
 Could be used to determine the area serviced by
each grocery store within a county

Some Tips

 Buffer and Thiessen Polygons are the easy

ones - they create new shapefiles you get to see
right away.
 Near and Point Distance are a little trickier
and only create a new attribute for your existing
shapefile.

Remember
 Buffer can use points, lines or polygons
 Near and Thiessen Polygons require at least 1
point layer
 Point Distance requires at least 2 point layers