ee.Geometry.Polygon.withinDistance

  • The withinDistance() method determines if two geometries are within a specified distance of each other, returning true if they are and false otherwise.

  • It takes the distance threshold, an optional projection, and an optional error margin as parameters.

  • The distance is measured in meters by default, or in the units of the projected coordinate system if specified.

  • This method can be applied to various geometry types like polygons and points, allowing for spatial relationship analysis.

 Returns true if and only if the geometries are within a specified distance.

UsageReturns
Polygon.withinDistance(right, distance, maxError, proj)Boolean
ArgumentTypeDetails
this: leftGeometryThe geometry used as the left operand of the operation.
rightGeometryThe geometry used as the right operand of the operation.
distanceFloatThe distance threshold. If a projection is specified, the distance is in units of that projected coordinate system, otherwise it is in meters.
maxErrorErrorMargin, default: nullThe maximum amount of error tolerated when performing any necessary reprojection.
projProjection, default: nullThe projection in which to perform the operation. If not specified, the operation will be performed in a spherical coordinate system, and linear distances will be in meters on the sphere.

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Define a Polygon object.
var polygon = ee.Geometry.Polygon(
    [[[-122.092, 37.424],
      [-122.086, 37.418],
      [-122.079, 37.425],
      [-122.085, 37.423]]]);

// Define other inputs.
var inputGeom = ee.Geometry.Point(-122.090, 37.423);

// Apply the withinDistance method to the Polygon object.
var polygonWithinDistance = polygon.withinDistance({'right': inputGeom, 'distance': 500, 'maxError': 1});

// Print the result to the console.
print('polygon.withinDistance(...) =', polygonWithinDistance);

// Display relevant geometries on the map.
Map.setCenter(-122.085, 37.422, 15);
Map.addLayer(polygon,
             {'color': 'black'},
             'Geometry [black]: polygon');
Map.addLayer(inputGeom,
             {'color': 'blue'},
             'Parameter [blue]: inputGeom');

Python setup

See the Python Environment page for information on the Python API and using geemap for interactive development.

import ee
import geemap.core as geemap

Colab (Python)

# Define a Polygon object.
polygon = ee.Geometry.Polygon([[
    [-122.092, 37.424],
    [-122.086, 37.418],
    [-122.079, 37.425],
    [-122.085, 37.423],
]])

# Define other inputs.
input_geom = ee.Geometry.Point(-122.090, 37.423)

# Apply the withinDistance method to the Polygon object.
polygon_within_distance = polygon.withinDistance(
    right=input_geom, distance=500, maxError=1
)

# Print the result.
display('polygon.withinDistance(...) =', polygon_within_distance)

# Display relevant geometries on the map.
m = geemap.Map()
m.set_center(-122.085, 37.422, 15)
m.add_layer(polygon, {'color': 'black'}, 'Geometry [black]: polygon')
m.add_layer(input_geom, {'color': 'blue'}, 'Parameter [blue]: input_geom')
m