Arcmap overlay tool

Locate Regions. Identifies the best regions, or groups of contiguous cells, from an input utility suitability raster that satisfy a specified evaluation criterion and that meet identified shape, size, number, and interregion distance constraints. Weighted Overlay. Overlays several rasters using a common measurement scale and weights each according to its importance. Weighted Sum. Overlays several rasters, multiplying each by their given weight and summing them together.

Arc GIS Desktop. Only those features in the area common to both coverages will be preserved in the output coverage. Computes the geometric intersection of two polygon coverages. All polygons from both coverages will be split at their intersections and preserved in the output coverage.

Replaces the input coverage areas with the update coverage polygons using a cut and paste operation. Arc GIS for Desktop. Available with Advanced license. Tool Description Erase Creates a new output coverage by overlaying the polygons of the erase coverage with the features of the input coverage. You can use overlay analysis to combine the characteristics of several datasets into one.

You can then find specific locations or areas that have a certain set of attribute values—that is, match the criteria you specify. This approach is often used to find locations that are suitable for a particular use or are susceptible to some risk.

For example, you'd overlay layers of vegetation type, slope, aspect, soil moisture, and so on, to find areas susceptible to wildfire. Below is an example of an overlay of steep slopes, soils, and vegetation. New polygons are created by the intersection of the input polygon boundaries. The resulting polygons have all the attributes of the original polygons.

Overlay analysis is often used in conjunction with other types of analysis. For example, you might include datasets derived from proximity analysis such as the Buffer tool or surface analysis the Slope or Aspect tool. Similarly, you'll likely perform additional analysis on the results of the overlay, such as extraction to select a subset of features, or generalization to dissolve polygons, for example.

Often, overlay is one step in an analysis process or model and may occur at various points in the process. In general, there are two methods for performing overlay analysis—feature overlay overlaying points, lines, or polygons and raster overlay. Some types of overlay analysis lend themselves to one or the other of these methods.

Overlay analysis to find locations meeting certain criteria is often best done using raster overlay although you can do it with feature data. Of course, this also depends on whether your data is already stored as features or rasters. It may be worthwhile to convert the data from one format to the other to perform the analysis. The key elements in feature overlay are the input layer, the overlay layer, and the output layer. Creates a feature class by overlaying the Input Features with the polygons of the Erase Features.

Only those portions of the input features falling outside the erase features outside boundaries are copied to the output feature class. Computes a geometric intersection of the input features and identity features. The input features or portions thereof that overlap identity features will get the attributes of those identity features. Computes a geometric intersection of the input features. Spatial Join. Joins attributes from one feature to another based on the spatial relationship.