Find Similar Locations

Based on criteria you specify, Find Similar Locations measures the similarity of locations in your candidate search layer to one or more reference locations. This tool can answer questions such as

• Which of your stores are most similar to your top performers with regard to customer profiles?
• Based on characteristics of the villages hardest hit by the disease, which other villages are high risk?

To answer questions such as these, you provide the reference locations, the candidate search locations, and the fields representing the criteria you want to match. The layer you selected for analysis should contain your reference or benchmark locations. For example, your reference locations might be a layer containing your top performing stores or the villages hardest hit by a disease. You then specify the layer containing your candidate search locations. This might be all of your stores or all other villages. Finally, you identify one or more fields to use for measuring similarity. Find Similar Locations will then rank all of the candidate search locations by how closely they match your reference locations across all of the fields you have selected.

1 Reference locations 2 Candidate search locations 3 Similarity criteria 4 Interpreting results 5 Potential applications

1 Reference locations

Here are some example scenarios for working with reference locations and candidate search locations.

• In some cases your analysis layer will contain both the reference locations and the candidate search locations. You might have a single layer containing all of your stores, for example, and may want to rank them from most to least similar to your top performing store. You can
  1. Use your stores layer as both your analysis layer and your candidate search layer. You must then identify, using one of the selection tools, which store is your top performer. You can select your reference locations using interactive query or by building a query:
     • For interactive selection click the leftmost selection button and click the reference location on the map. If you want to select additional reference locations, click the selection button again before finding and clicking each additional reference location on the map.
     • To build a query, click the rightmost selection button. A dialog box will pop up to help you define your query. For example, if each of your stores has a field indicating how much revenue they made in the past year, you might want to select the stores that exceed some threshold revenue value.
  2. Alternatively, create a copy of the stores layer so there are two versions in the table of contents. Click the filter button under the first copy and define a Filter to select your top performer. Then click the filter button under the second layer and define a Filter to select the candidate search locations (which might be all of the stores except your top performer). The first layer is your analysis layer (click Perform Analysis below the layer or the Analysis button at the top of your map, and navigate to Find Similar Locations by expanding the Find Locations category). Specify the second layer for the Search for similar locations in parameter. These are your candidate search locations.
• In other cases you will have separate reference and candidate search layers. You might have a stores layer that includes your top performer with fields describing the store customer base (fields such as median income and marital status, for example) and a second layer of candidate parcels from which you will determine the best location to build a new store. In this case, if the reference locations layer includes more than just your reference locations, you must first identify the reference locations using one of the selection tools described above. If your layer only includes your reference locations (your top performing store, for example), you do not need to make a selection. You would specify your parcels layer for the candidate search locations (parameter two). If both the parcels and your top performing store have fields describing the customer base, you can run Find Similar Locations to identify candidate parcels with demographic characteristics most like the customers for your best performing store. If your candidate parcels do not have demographic data, consider using the Enrich Layer tool to obtain data for your analysis.

Typically, you will only have a single reference location.

Note:

If there is more than one reference location, similarity will be based on averages for the fields you specify. So, for example, if there are two reference locations and you are interested in matching population, the tool will look for candidate search locations with populations that are most like the average population for both reference locations. If the values for the reference locations are 100 and 102, for example, the tool will look for candidate search locations with populations near 101. Consequently, you will want to select fields for the reference locations fields that have similar values. If, for example, the population values for one reference location is 100 and the other is 100,000, the tool will look for candidate search locations with population values near the average of those two values: 50,050. Notice that this averaged value is nothing like the population for either of the reference locations.

2 Candidate search locations

The locations in the candidate search locations layer will be ranked from most to least similar. Similarity is based on how closely each candidate search location matches the reference location across the fields you specify. When you have a single layer containing both your reference locations and your candidate search locations you will Perform Analysis on that layer and also use it in parameter two (Search for similar locations in). You will need to use the selection tools to identify your reference locations. The tool will not rank the reference locations in the results. Another solution when your analysis layer contains both reference and candidate search locations is to separate layers.

In order to measure similarity, the fields you select to Base similarity on, must exist in both the reference locations and the candidate search locations. You may want to consider using the Enrich Layer tool to obtain data for your analysis.

3 Similarity criteria

The Base similarity on parameter asks you to specify the criteria used to measure similarity. These criteria represent the fields you want to match. The tool will find candidate search locations that have field values closest to those of your reference location. The options that appear in the drop-down list are a list of numeric fields that have the same name in both the analysis layer and the candidate search layer. If you do not see any fields listed, it means there are no numeric fields with matching names in both the analysis and candidate search layer.

4 Interpreting results

You will specify the number of results you want to see. By default, all of the candidate search locations will be ranked from most to least similar. In the results map the darkest colors are the locations most similar to the reference location. The reference locations are also shown on the result map, displayed dark red. If you open the table associated with the result layer you can see the rankings and the values for each of the fields you selected. If you are only interested in seeing the top three or five most similar locations, specify that number for the fourth parameter, Show me.

Additional information about the methodology used to determine similarity can be found in the How Similarity Search Works documentation for the Attribute Values matching method.

5 Potential applications

• You might use Find Similar Locations to identify other cities that are most like your own city in terms of population, education, and proximity to specific recreational activities. The reference location (either the analysis layer or a selection on the analysis layer) would be your own city. The criteria used to assess similarity would be fields associated with population, education, and distance to recreational activities. The candidate search locations would be the other cities you want to compare to your own.
• Local officials may want to promote their city to potential businesses in order to increase tax-based revenues. A Find Similar Locations analysis can help them identify other cities like theirs so they can compare themselves in terms of attractor attributes (such as low crime and high growth).
• A human resources manager may want to justify company salary ranges. Once she identifies cities that are similar in terms of size, cost of living, and amenities, she can examine salary ranges for positions of interest and determine if they are in line with company salaries.
• A crime analyst wants to search the database of all crimes to see if a recent crime might be part of a larger pattern or trend.
• An after-school fitness program was extremely successful in Town A. Promoters want to find other towns with similar characteristics to serve as candidates for program expansion.
• A law enforcement agency has uncovered areas where drugs are being grown or manufactured. Identifying locations with similar characteristics may help them target future searches.
• A large retailer has several successful stores and a few underperformers. Finding locations with similar demographic and contextual characteristics (accessibility, visibility, complementary businesses, and so on) will help identify the best locations for a new store.