Analytics

Using interactive features with Spatial Analyst tools

Have you tried the new Interactive feature input capability in ArcGIS Pro 2.0 yet?  Read on to learn more about how you can perform analysis interactively with some of the Spatial Analyst tools.

Interactive feature input has been added to a number of geoprocessing tools in ArcGIS Pro 2.0, including certain Spatial Analyst tools that can process feature data. Depending on the type of features supported by a particular tool, you have the option to interactively create points, lines, polygons or 3D multipatches. This cool functionality lets you draw input features interactively on the map, and these features then become inputs to your tool.

Let’s go through an example to see how we can create polygon zones to summarize a raster using the Zonal Statistics as Table tool.

With the tool dialog box open, start by clicking the pencil, then select Polygons from the drop-down.

Once you select Polygons, a default polygon drawing tool will be activated and you can start drawing the polygon on the map, or you can choose from a palette of different editing tool used to digitize a polygon, including irregular polygons, autocomplete polygons, right-angle polygons, circles, squares, etc.

Now start drawing the features. For this example, I am comparing Seafloor Dissolved Oxygen (ml/l) at the coastline on both sides of the Gulf of California, and I have chosen the free shape polygon to digitize the zones.

After you finish drawing the polygons on the map, clear selection from the last created feature. Go to the Edit ribbon, select Clear. If you do not clear the selection, the analysis will run only on the last selected feature.

For Zonal Statistics as Table, we need an attribute to uniquely identify each zone. Open the attribute table of the zone polygon layer you just created. You will notice that it already comes with some default fields of different types. We are going to use the ‘Integer Value’ field for the analysis, so will enter a value for each of the polygons, and then save the table.

In the tool, use the ‘Integer Value’ field as the Zone field. Populate the rest of the parameters, specify the output and run with the ‘All’ Statistics type. The output table should appear something like below.

From this example, you learned about using the interactive features input capability in the Zonal Statistics as Table tool.

Apart from Zonal Statistics as Table, Interactive Feature Input is also supported in the following Spatial Analyst tools, grouped by toolset:

Now that you know how to use the interactive features, let’s recap a few things:

To learn more about using interactive feature input with geoprocessing tools, explore the help documentation here. Additionally you can also explore a recent blog post, Streamline Your ArcGIS Pro Geoprocessing Workflows with Interactive Feature Inputs to gain further insights on interactive feature input.

About the author

Sarmistha is a Senior Product Engineer in the raster analysis group at Esri, and works on raster and scientific multidimensional data analysis. Her primary interest is in the application of GIS for environmental and climate change modeling to study changes for conservation and improved decision making. When not making maps, Sarmistha likes to experiment with her cooking skills!

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