Network Analyst tool - ArcGIS advanced training

This resource was originally published on the CartoBlog in 2018 by CartONG. It was transferred to the IM Resource Portal in May 2021. The CartoBlog will be decommissioned in early 2022.

CartONG is publishing an advanced tutorial on the Network Analyst tool of ArcGIS Desktop 10.5, created by ESRI.

ArcGIS Network Analyst provides network-based spatial analysis tools to solve complex routing problems. It uses a configurable transportation network data model, allowing organizations to accurately represent their unique network requirements. Users can thus plan routes for an entire fleet, calculate drive-times, locate facilities and solve other network related problems.

This tutorial was developed as part of a training session for our partner MSF Suisse. All examples are thus based on field needs encountered at MSF. More particularly, in this tutorial, users can learn how to best calculate the fastest road from a point A (here the MSF Office) to multiple points (here each of the Health facilities). As a result, a road shapefile with the attributes of road length, name of origin and destination will be obtained.

This tutorial is build around 4 main steps:

1. Getting software & data ready
2. Build the road network
3. Create the analysis
4. Symbology