The nearby analysis workflow analyzes the distance between sites and points of interest (POI). First, select sites to include in the analysis, and then choose point lists. Point lists are curated collections of points of interest categories and codes, such as restaurants, health care, parking, and grocery stores. You can use featured point lists, custom point lists, point lists based on web maps and layers, or create a new point list.
The results of this analysis appear in the Results pane. You can explore the distance, total count, and density of points for your sites, as well as view point details, such as point attributes.
License:
The nearby analysis workflow is available to users with a Business Analyst Web App Advanced license. To learn more about Business Analyst license types, see Licenses.
To use nearby analysis, do the following:
- On the Maps tab, click Run analysis and select Nearby analysis.
The Nearby analysis pane appears.
- Click Add sites to use point-based sites.
Use the Add sites window to select from recently used sites, sites currently on the map, or sites from any project. Click Apply. Click Add sites to include additional sites or click Remove
to remove selected sites. - Click Next to proceed.
- Click Add point lists to add points of interest (POI) to your analysis. In the Add point lists window, do any of the following:
- Use the Data source drop-down menu to change which POI data source you are using.
- On the Featured point lists tab, check the check box for a featured list to add it to the analysis. Click the Options button
to show or edit the list. - On the My point lists tab, check the check box for a custom list, such as a previously saved POI search, to add it to the analysis. Click the Options button to show, edit, or delete the list.
- On the Web layer point lists tab, check the check box for a saved POI layer, web layer of points, or point layer to add it to the analysis.
- Click Create a point list. Perform a points of interest (POI) search and click Next. Style the points using a featured symbol or create a custom symbol and click Next. Name the list and click Create. The new point list is saved on the My point lists tab.
- Once you've selected your point lists, click Apply.
The results appear on the map.
- Click Next to proceed.
The results appear in the Results pane.
- Optionally, use the Sites section to add or remove sites.
- Optionally, use the Area type drop-down menu to select how the area around a site is measured.
The Default site area option uses the area that you set when creating the site. If you are using multiple sites, all with different areas, consider using the Custom site area option to apply a new measurement for rings, drive times, or walk times that is consistent across sites in the analysis.
- Optionally, use the Point lists section to add, remove, or edit the point lists used in the analysis.
- In the Style section, change the map style, and click Show style options to change styling, including colors, transparency, border, and labels.
Changes made appear immediately on the map. The available map styles depend on the attributes you are mapping. See the Map styles section below for more information.
- In the Results pane, explore the nearby analysis as a summary and in tables.
See the Explore the results section below for more information.
- Click Save layer.
- Enter a name for the layer and click Save.
The saved layer can be accessed in the project pane in the Nearby analysis layers section.
Explore the results
The nearby analysis results are displayed in the Results pane. To learn about the underlying calculations, see Results pane reference.
To hide or show the Results pane, click Collapse 
or Expand 
.
Summary view
Click Summary 
to view a summary of the results. The summary includes the total count of points near your sites, the distance to the nearest point from your sites, and the points per 1,000 households. If you use more than one site, you can view a scatterplot comparing the point density to the distance to nearest point.
Point details table view
Click Point details table 
to view a table with each location near your sites along with its attribute details, such as square foot minimum and employee count. To explore the point details table, do any of the following:
- Click Filter
to select which sites and point lists to display in the table. Confirm your selections by unchecking the check boxes next to sites and point lists you do not want to include in the analysis. - You can modify how the table appears. Click a column header to sort the table by the data in that column. Click Customize table
to modify the columns in the table. Drag the name of a column to change its order in the table. Uncheck the check box next to the column name to deselect it from the table. Use the Rows per page drop-down menu to change the number of rows displayed in the table. Click Next 
or Back 
to navigate the table pages. - Click Export to Excel
to export the data from the nearby analysis to an Excel worksheet.Note:
Exporting to Excel is only available when using Data Axle as the data source.
Site summary table view
Click Site summary table 
to view a table with your location and nearby analysis calculations, including the distance to the nearest point, the total count of points, and point density. To explore the site summary table, do any of the following:
- Click Filter to select which point lists to display in the table. Confirm your selections by unchecking the check boxes next to point lists you do not want to include in the analysis.
- You can modify how the table appears. Click a column header to sort the table by the data in that column. Click Customize table to modify the columns in the table. Drag the name of a column to change its order in the table. Uncheck the check box next to the column name to deselect it from the table. Use the Rows per page drop-down menu to change the number of rows displayed in the table. Click Next or Back to navigate the table pages.
- Click Export to Excel to export the data from the nearby analysis to an Excel worksheet.
Map styles
You can style the points on the map using different map styles. Depending on the data source, the following styles are available.
Style points
Map your points using icons. If you are using featured point lists, the icons use intuitive iconography to visually identify what kinds of places the point lists represent. For example, parks are represented with a tree icon, grocery stores with a shopping cart icon, and restaurants with a knife and fork icon. The icons are curated and match the datasets available.
To modify the map style, click Show style options. Turn the Cluster points toggle button on or off. Use the Size slider to adjust the relative size of the symbols.
Style points with area color
Map your points and site areas with color-coding based on attributes. For example, you can visualize the sites with the highest and lowest count of points. This style only maps one attribute, such as count of points, point density, or distance to nearest point.
By default, this map style uses the Count of points attribute. Use the Attribute drop-down menu to change the selection. To modify the map style, click Show style options and do any of the following:
- Use the Theme drop-down menu to choose a color theme. Each theme can tell a story by matching colors to data in different ways. For example, the High to low theme applies a color ramp with a continuous gradient of a single color. The Above or below theme applies a color ramp with two distinctive color gradients to match the values above and below a value, such as zero or the average.
- Use the Color ramp drop-down menu to choose a color ramp. Click Reverse order to change the direction of the color ramp.
- Use the Transparency slider to adjust the color transparency.
- In the Points section, turn the Cluster points toggle button on or off. Use the Size slider to adjust the relative size of the symbols.
Style points with relationship
Map your points and two attributes using a single grid color ramp to show the quantitative relationship between two variables. Relationship symbology is best used to emphasize the highest and lowest values on the map or to find correlations. This map style applies a distinct graduated color ramp to the classified data in each attribute and combines the color ramps, allowing you to see where the attributes may be related.
By default, this map style uses the Distance to nearest point and Count of points attributes. Use the Attribute 1 and Attribute 2 drop-down menus to change the selections. To modify the map style, click Show style options and do any of the following:
- In the Grid section, use the Grid colors drop-down menu to choose a color ramp. Use the Rotate color ramp button to rotate the colors in the grid.
- Use the Distribution type drop-down menu to choose a classification method.
- Choose Natural breaks to partition data into classes based on peaks and valleys in the data distribution.
- Choose Equal interval to create classes with equal spacing on the number line between the lowest and highest values of the variable.
- Choose Quantile to create classes with the same number of features.
- Use the Transparency slider to adjust the color transparency.
- In the Symbol section, turn the Cluster points toggle button on or off. Use the Size slider to adjust the relative size of the symbols.
Style counts and amounts (color)
Styling counts and amount by color can highlight data variances. For example, a light-to-dark color theme can show low-to-high data values. This style only maps one attribute, such as count of points, point density, or distance to nearest point. Your points are not mapped with this style.
By default, this map style uses the Count of points attribute. Use the Attribute drop-down menu to change the selection. To modify the map style, click Show style options and do any of the following:
- Use the Theme drop-down menu to choose a color theme. Each theme can tell a story by matching colors to data in different ways. For example, the High to low theme applies a color ramp with a continuous gradient of a single color. The Above or below theme applies a color ramp with two distinctive color gradients to match the values above and below a value such as zero or the average.
- Use the Color ramp drop-down menu to choose a color ramp. Click Reverse order to change the direction of the color ramp.
- Use the Transparency slider to adjust the color transparency.
Style relationship
Map two attributes using a single grid color ramp to show the quantitative relationship between two variables. Relationship symbology is best used to emphasize the highest and lowest values on the map or to find correlations. This map style applies a distinct graduated color ramp to the classified data in each attribute and combines the color ramps, allowing you to see where the attributes may be related. Your points are not mapped with this style.
By default, this map style uses the Distance to nearest point and Count of points attributes. Use the Attribute 1 and Attribute 2 drop-down menus to change the selections. To modify the map style, click Show style options and do any of the following:
- In the Grid section, use the Grid colors drop-down menu to choose a color ramp. Use the Rotate color ramp button to rotate the colors in the grid.
- Use the Distribution type drop-down menu to choose a classification method.
- Choose Natural breaks to partition data into classes based on peaks and valleys in the data distribution.
- Choose Equal interval to create classes with equal spacing on the number line between the lowest and highest values of the variable.
- Choose Quantile to create classes with the same number of features.
- Use the Transparency slider to adjust the color transparency.
Set preferences
You can set preferences for Business Analyst Web App in the app preferences. For the nearby analysis workflow, you can set a preference for the area type and choose a symbol for the search results. Administrators can set preferences for the entire organization.
To set the workflow preferences, do the following:
- On the app header, click My preferences
.The Preferences window appears.
- To set the default points of interest data source, expand the General section and click Settings. In the Points of interest data source section, use the Select data source drop-down menu to choose a points of interest data source.
- Expand the Maps section, expand the Run analysis section, and click Nearby analysis.
- Set the following preferences:
- In the Site areas section, use the drop-down menu to set a default area type. If you use the Custom option, set an area type using rings, drive times, or walk times.
- In the Symbol section, use the Cluster points toggle button to turn point clustering on or off. Use the Size slider to increase or decrease the symbol size.
- In the Area of interest outline section, use the Color drop-down menu to choose a color for the outline. Increase or decrease the width of the outline. Use the Transparency slider to change the transparency of the outline style or enter a transparency percentage.
- Use the Dialogs check box to show a warning when you click Back on nearby analysis results.
- Optionally, restore the default settings by clicking Restore defaults.
- To save your changes, click Save or, optionally, click Save and close to close the Preferences window. To view your changes, refresh the app.