Overlay Layers (GeoAnalytics)

Summary

Overlays the geometries from multiple layers into a single layer. Overlay can be used to combine, erase, modify, or update spatial features.

Overlay is used to answer one of the most basic questions of geography, What is on top of what? The following are examples:

• What parcels are within the 100-year floodplain? (Within is another way of saying on top of.)
• What land use is on top of what soil type?
• What mines are within abandoned military bases?

Illustration

Usage

• This geoprocessing tool is available with ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1 or later.

• Use examples include the following:

  • The department of environmental quality wants to monitor the impact of grazing livestock on the state's water quality. Biologists with the department need to determine where the land deemed to be grazing allotments intersect certain watersheds. Overlay Layers can be used to find intersecting areas.
  • A development company wants to build a golf resort in one of three centrally located counties in their state. Before they can begin planning, they need to determine whether there is enough privately owned land within those counties that they may be able to purchase for the resort. Overlay Layers can be used to remove the publically owned lands from the selected counties.

• With ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1, the input layer and overlay layer must have matching geometry types. At ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7, additional relationships are supported.

• The following table outlines the Intersect and Erase overlay operations with different geometry types available at ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1:

  Input layer (green) and overlay layer (yellow)	Intersect results	Erase results
  Polygon overlay layer (green) and input layer (yellow).	Intersecting polygons of the input and overlay layers. B is the intersection of B and 2. D is the intersection of D and 4. E is the intersection of E and 5.	Polygons that are the result of the Erase operation. E has been completely erased, and a portion of B and D have been erased. A and C have not been erased.
  Line overlay layer (green) and input layer (yellow).	Lines that are the result of the Intersect operation. B is the intersection of B and 2. D is the intersection of D and 4.	Lines that are the result of the Erase operation. The feature B has been completely erased and a segment of D has been erased. A and C have not been erased.
  Point overlay layer (green) and input layer (yellow).	A point that is the result of the Intersect operation. C is the intersection of C and 3.	Points that are the result of the Erase operation. The feature C has been erased. A and B are the result of the operation.

• With ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1, if both layers are polygons, analysis can be accelerated by unchecking the Include Overlapping Input Layers parameter (include_overlaps=NOT_OVERLAPPING in Python). You should only uncheck this input if both of the following conditions are true:

  • The input layer features do not overlap other input layer features.
  • The overlay layer features do not overlap other overlay layer features.

  You can also uncheck this parameter if you don't want a unique result returned for each self-intersecting overlap. For example, census boundaries would not have any self-overlapping features, and if they were overlaid to another disjoint polygon layer, you could uncheck this parameter. This parameter is not used at ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 or later.

• At ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 or later, the supported overlay methods and input geometries are described in the following table:

  Input and Overlay geometry types	Intersect	Erase	Union (available at 10.7)	Identity (available at 10.7)	Symmetric Difference (available at 10.7)
  Point and point	Available at 10.6.1 and later.	Available at 10.6.1 and later.		Available at 10.7 and later.	Available at 10.7 and later.
  Point and polyline	Available at 10.7 and later.
  Point and polygon	Available at 10.7 and later.			Available at 10.7 and later.
  Polyline and point	Available at 10.7 and later.
  Polyline and polyline	Available at 10.6.1 and later.	Available at 10.6.1 and later.		Available at 10.7 and later.	Available at 10.7 and later.
  Polyline and polygon	Available at 10.7 and later.			Available at 10.7 and later.
  Polygon and point	Available at 10.7 and later.
  Polygon and polyline	Available at 10.7 and later.
  Polygon and polygon	Available at 10.6.1 and later.	Available at 10.6.1 and later.	Available at 10.7 and later.	Available at 10.7 and later.	Available at 10.7 and later.

  Overlay method	Description
  Intersect	The features or portions of features in the overlay that overlap the input features are preserved. The input and feature geometry must be the same. This is the default.
  Erase	The features or portions of features in the overlay features that overlap the input features are removed.
  Union	The result will contain a geometric union of the input layer and overlay layer. All features and their attributes will be written to the layer.
  Identity	The result will contain features or portions of features of the input features and overlay features. Features or portions of features that overlap in both input layer and overlay layer will be written to the output layer.
  Symmetric Difference	The result will contain features or portions of features of the input layer and the overlay layer that do not overlap.

Parameters

Dialog

Label	Explanation	Data Type
Input Layer	The point, line, or polygon features that will be overlaid with the overlay layer.	Feature Set
Overlay Layer	The features that will be overlaid with the input layer features.	Feature Set
Output Name	The name of the output feature service.	String
Overlay Type	Specifies the type of overlay to be performed. Intersect —Computes a geometric intersection of the input layers. Features or portions of features that overlap in both the input layer and overlay layer will be written to the output layer. This is the default. Erase —Only those features or portions of features in the overlay layer that are not within the features in the input layer are written to the output. Union — Computes a geometric union of the input layer and overlay layer. All features and their attributes will be written to the layer. Identity — Computes a geometric intersection of the input features and identity features. Features or portions of features that overlap in both input layer and overlay layer will be written to the output layer. Symmetrical Difference — Features or portions of features in the input layer and overlay layer that do not overlap will be written to the output layer.	String
Include Overlapping Input Layers (Optional)	Specifies whether one or both of the input layers have self-intersecting features. This parameter is only supported for ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1. Checked—One or both of the layers have overlapping features. This is the default. Unchecked—Neither layer has overlapping features.	Boolean
Data Store (Optional)	Specifies the ArcGIS Data Store where the output will be saved. The default is Spatiotemporal big data store. All results stored in a spatiotemporal big data store will be stored in WGS84. Results stored in a relational data store will maintain their coordinate system. Spatiotemporal big data store —Output will be stored in a spatiotemporal big data store. This is the default. Relational data store —Output will be stored in a relational data store.	String

Derived Output

Label	Explanation	Data Type
Output Feature Layer	The overlay of multiple layers into a single layer.	Feature Set

Python

arcpy.geoanalytics.OverlayLayers(input_layer, overlay_layer, output_name, overlay_type, {include_overlaps}, {data_store})

Name	Explanation	Data Type
input_layer	The point, line, or polygon features that will be overlaid with the overlay layer.	Feature Set
overlay_layer	The features that will be overlaid with the input layer features.	Feature Set
output_name	The name of the output feature service.	String
overlay_type	Specifies the type of overlay to be performed. INTERSECT —Computes a geometric intersection of the input layers. Features or portions of features that overlap in both the input layer and overlay layer will be written to the output layer. This is the default. ERASE —Only those features or portions of features in the overlay layer that are not within the features in the input layer are written to the output. UNION — Computes a geometric union of the input layer and overlay layer. All features and their attributes will be written to the layer. IDENTITY — Computes a geometric intersection of the input features and identity features. Features or portions of features that overlap in both input layer and overlay layer will be written to the output layer. SYMMETRICAL_DIFFERENCE — Features or portions of features in the input layer and overlay layer that do not overlap will be written to the output layer.	String
include_overlaps (Optional)	Specifies whether one or both of the input layers have overlapping features. OVERLAPPING —One or both of the layers have overlapping features. This is the default. NOT_OVERLAPPING —Neither layer has overlapping features.	Boolean
data_store (Optional)	Specifies the ArcGIS Data Store where the output will be saved. The default is SPATIOTEMPORAL_DATA_STORE. All results stored in a spatiotemporal big data store will be stored in WGS84. Results stored in a relational data store will maintain their coordinate system. SPATIOTEMPORAL_DATA_STORE —Output will be stored in a spatiotemporal big data store. This is the default. RELATIONAL_DATA_STORE —Output will be stored in a relational data store.	String

Derived Output

Name	Explanation	Data Type
output	The overlay of multiple layers into a single layer.	Feature Set

Code sample

OverlayLayers example (stand-alone script)

The following Python window script demonstrates how to use the OverlayLayers tool.

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Name: OverlayLayers.py
# Description: Remove areas that are already developed from proposed development sites
#
# Requirements: ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server

# Import system modules
import arcpy

# Set local variables
inFeatures = "https://myGeoAnalyticsMachine.domain.com/geoanalytics/rest/services/DataStoreCatalogs/bigDataFileShares_cityData/BigDataCatalogServer/areasOfInterest"
overlayFeatures = "https://myGeoAnalyticsMachine.domain.com/geoanalytics/rest/services/DataStoreCatalogs/bigDataFileShares_cityData/BigDataCatalogServer/commercial"
outFS = "DevelopmentSites"
overlayType = "ERASE"
dataStore = "SPATIOTEMPORAL_DATA_STORE"

# Execute Overlay Layers
arcpy.geoanalytics.OverlayLayers(inFeatures, overlayFeatures, outFS, 
                                 overlayType, dataStore)

Environments

Output Coordinate System, Extent, Current Workspace

Output Coordinate System

The coordinate system that will be used for analysis. Analysis will be completed in the input coordinate system unless specified by this parameter. For GeoAnalytics Tools, final results will be stored in the spatiotemporal data store in WGS84.

Licensing information

• Basic: Requires ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server
• Standard: Requires ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server
• Advanced: Requires ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server