Monotonicity

Available with Data Reviewer license.

Summary

The Monotonicity check finds polyline features that contain monotonic errors in either elevation or measure values (z-values or m-values).

Overview

The purpose of the Monotonicity check is to identify features that contain z-values or m-values that are not strictly increasing or decreasing in value. Features that contain nonmonotonic values can impact the results of your analysis and models.

Features can also be evaluated to determine whether they are trending in a specific manner. Features that contain node values that do not trend as expected can impact the results of your analysis.

When configured as a constraint rule, an error notification is returned upon creation or modification of a feature based on the specified conditions defined in the parameters of the rule.

When configured as a validation rule, an error is created during validation when a feature contains either a vertex that is nonmonotonic or meets other conditions specified in the rule. In m-value validations, vertices that don't contain measure values (NaN) will also be returned as errors.

Industry scenarios

  • In water resource management, elevation values stored in streamline features are used to add detail to digital elevation models (hydro DEM conditioning) to enforce known drainage patterns.
  • In roadway management, roadway routes that have two or more consecutive vertices with the same measure may adversely affect length calculations, for example, United States Department of Transportation mileage reports.

Examples

Non-monotonic—The following image illustrates two (2) line features with z-values and m-values that are not strictly increasing or decreasing in value:

Monotonicity z-values and m-values

Supported workflows

ArcGIS Data Reviewer checks support multiple methods for implementing automated review of your data. The following table identifies the supported implementation methods for this check:

ValidationConstraint

Reviewer batch job

Reviewer map rule

Attribute (validation) rule

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Syntax

ParameterRequiredDescriptionWorkflows

Input Layers

Yes

The input feature layers evaluated by the rule.

Valid inputs for this rule type are polyline features that are z- or m-enabled. Click the Forward button Forward to apply filtering to specific features in the feature layer.

Validation (map rules)

Subtype

No

The subtype that the rule is applied to if the dataset has subtypes.

Constraint

Validation (attribute rules)

Attribute

No

A query that identifies the features to which the rule is applied.

Validation (attribute rules)

Evaluate

Yes

The property to be evaluated.

Select either z-values or m-values for evaluation.

Constraint

Validation

Search Goal

Yes

Error conditions evaluated by the rule. Any feature whose values match those defined in the rule are returned as an error.

  • Non-Monotonic Features—Feature vertices are returned when vertices are not strictly increasing or decreasing in value.
  • Level Values (From = To)—Features are returned when the From node is equal to the To node.
  • Decreasing Values (From > To)—Features are returned when the From node is greater than the To node.
  • Increasing Values (From < To)—Features are returned when the From node is less than the To node.

Constraint

Validation

Triggers

Yes

The editing events that trigger the rule to take effect.

  • Insert—Triggers the rule when a new feature is added.
  • Update—Triggers the rule when a feature is updated.
  • Delete—Triggers the rule when a feature is deleted.

Constraint

Title/Name

No

A unique title or name for the rule.

This information is used to support data quality requirement traceability, automated reporting, and corrective workflows.

Constraint

Validation

Notes/Description

No

Descriptive text of the error condition when noncompliant features are found.

This information is used to provide guidance to facilitate corrective workflows.

Constraint

Validation

Severity

No

Severity of the error created when noncompliant features are found.

This value indicates the importance of the Reviewer result relative to other results. Values range from 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest priority and 5 being the lowest.

Validation

Tags

No

Tag property of the Reviewer rule.

This information is used in rule authoring and management workflows to support traceability and reporting of data quality requirements.

Constraint

Validation

Notes

  • Polyline features must be either z-enabled or m-enabled to be used in this check.
  • Differences in z-values or m-values between adjacent vertices that are within the z-tolerance or m-toleranc are not compared when evaluated for monotonicity.
  • Polyline features must have a defined vertical coordinate system to be used in this check for evaluating z-values.
  • A feature’s From node and To node values are used to determine whether z-values or m-values should be strictly increasing or decreasing when evaluated for monotonicity.
  • Vertices that are within x,y tolerance are not compared when evaluated for monotonicity.
  • Multipart features are evaluated in part order (Part 0, Part 1, and so forth) when evaluated for monotonicity.
  • When this check is authored as an attribute (validation) rule and multiple error conditions are detected on a feature (for example, non-monotonic and increasing), a single error feature is created. When this check is authored as a maps-based or contained in a Reviewer batch job, an error result is created for each condition.
  • The Attribute parameter is limited to comparison (=, <>, >, <, >=, <=) and logical (AND/OR, IN/NOT IN, LIKE/NOT LIKE, IS NULL) operators.
  • When this check is authored as a map-based rule, verify that filter parameters using database-specific SQL functions are the same as from those supported in your production environment.

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