I'm using ArcGIS 10.2 Desktop and I need to trace downstream on a river network from a Discharge point to another point where the river intersects polygons of interest. The distance from each discharge point to the nearest point of intersection (with the polygon of interest) is an important element that I need to know.
I am using a geometric network and my question is how do I go about doing this process? I've looked at flags and barriers but distance doesn't seem to be included when looking at geometric networks as opposed to Network Datasets such as roads etc. I'm not sure how to mark the first point of interaction a river has with the area of interest. I've been able to dissolve my geometric layer so that I'm left with just the sections of river concerned with each discharge point.
I need to be able to say that from Discharge Point A, here is a list (say 5km's downstream of it) of all the receptors (my areas of interest which are either lines or polygons) it interacts with.