One example application of this tool is finding the best network for emergency vehicles.
The input regions can be either image services or feature services.
In a raster, a region is a group of cells with the same value that are contiguous to one another (adjacent). When your input regions are identified by a raster, if any zones (cells with the same value) are composed of multiple regions, first preprocess the data to assign unique values to each region.
Cell locations with NoData in the Input cost raster act as barriers.
The Input cost raster cannot contain values of zero since the algorithm is a multiplicative process. If your cost raster does contain values of zero, and these values represent areas of lowest cost, change values of zero to a small positive value (such as 0.01) before running Determine Optimum Travel Cost Network
For Ouput neighbor network, the neighbors are not identified by Euclidean distance but instead are identified by cost distance. Therefore, a region's closest neighbor is the cheapest one to travel to, not the one that is closest in distance

Syntax

Parameter	Explanation
inputRegionsRasterOrFeatures	The input regions that are to be connected by the least-cost network. Regions can be defined by either an image service or a feature service. If the region input is a raster, the regions are defined by groups of contiguous (adjacent) cells of the same value. Each region must be uniquely numbered. The cells that are not part of any region must be NoData. The raster type must be integer, and the values can be either positive or negative. If the region input is a feature, it can be polygons, lines, or points. Polygon feature regions cannot be composed of multipart polygons.
inputCostRaster	A raster defining the impedance or cost to move planimetrically through each cell. The value at each cell location represents the cost-per-unit distance for moving through the cell. Each cell location value is multiplied by the cell resolution while also compensating for diagonal movement to obtain the total cost of passing through the cell. The values of the cost raster can be integer or floating point, but they cannot be negative or zero (you cannot have a negative or zero cost).
outputOptimumNetworkName	The name of the output optimum network feature service. The polyline feature service of the optimum (least-cost) network of paths necessary to connect each of the input regions. Each path (or line) is uniquely numbered, and additional fields in the attribute table store specific information about the path. Those fields include the following: PATHID—Unique identifier for the path PATHCOST—Total accumulative cost for the path REGION1—The first region the path connects REGION2—The other region the path connects This information provides you insight into the paths within the network. Since each path is represented by a unique line, there will be multiple lines in locations where paths travel the same route.
outputNeighborNetworkName (Optional)	The name of the output Neighbor network feature service. The polyline feature service identifying all paths from each region to each of its closest-cost neighbors. Each path (or line) is uniquely numbered, and additional fields in the attribute table store specific information about the path. Those fields include the following: PATHID—Unique identifier for the path PATHCOST—Total accumulative cost for the path REGION1—The first region the path connects REGION2—The other region the path connects This information provides you insight into the paths within the network and is particularly useful when deciding which paths should be removed if necessary. Since each path is represented by a unique line, there will be multiple lines in locations where paths travel the same route.

Code Samples

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Name: DetermineOptimumTravelCostNetwork_Ex_02.py
# Description: Calculates the optimum travel cost network.
# Requirements: ArcGIS Image Server

# Import system modules
import arcpy

# Set local variables
inputSourceLayer = 'https://MyPortal.esri.com/server/rest/services/Hosted/sources/ImageServer'
inputCostLayer = 'https://MyPortal.esri.com/server/rest/services/Hosted/costraster/ImageServer'
outputOptimumNetworkName = 'outNetworkRaster'
outputNeighborName = 'outNeighborRaster'

arcpy.DetermineOptimumTravelCostNetwork_ra(inputSourceLayer, zoneField, inputCostLayer,
                               outputOptimumNetworkName, outputNeighborName)

Determine Optimum Travel Cost Network (Raster Analysis)

Title Determine Optimum Travel Cost Network (Raster Analysis)

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