An overview of the Proximity toolset

One of the most basic questions asked of a GIS is "what's near what?" For example:

• How close is this well to a landfill?
• Do any roads pass within 1,000 meters of a stream?
• What is the distance between two locations?
• What is the nearest or farthest feature from something?
• What is the distance between each feature in a layer and the features in another layer?
• What is the shortest street network route from some location to another?

The Proximity toolset contains tools that are used to determine the proximity of features within one or more feature classes or between two feature classes. These tools can identify features that are closest to one another or calculate the distances between or around them.

Learn more about proximity analysis in ArcGIS

Tools	Description
Buffer	Creates buffer polygons around input features to a specified distance. An optional dissolve can be performed to combine overlapping buffers.
Create Thiessen Polygons	Creates Thiessen polygons from point input features. Each Thiessen polygon contains only a single point input feature. Any location within a Thiessen polygon is closer to its associated point than to any other point input feature.
Multiple Ring Buffer	Creates multiple buffers at specified distances around the input features. These buffers can optionally be merged and dissolved using the buffer distance values to create non-overlapping buffers.
Generate Near Table	Determines the distances from each feature in the input features to one or more nearby features in the near features, within the search radius. The results are recorded in the output table.
Near	Determines the distance from each feature in the input features to the nearest feature in the near features, within the search radius.
Point Distance	Determines the distances from input point features to all points in the near features within a specified search radius.

Tools in the Proximity toolset