Dissolve Boundaries (Standard Feature Analysis)

Summary

Finds polygons that overlap or share a common boundary and merges them together to form a single polygon.

You can control which boundaries are merged by specifying a field. For example, if you have a layer of counties and each county has a State_Name field, you can dissolve boundaries using the State_Name field. Adjacent counties will be merged together if they have the same value for State_Name. The end result is a layer of state boundaries.

Illustration

Dissolve Boundaries

Usage

  • There are two methods for dissolving boundaries: overlapping or adjacent areas and field value.

  • The Dissolve Boundaries tool has the option to calculate statistics on numerical fields for areas that are being dissolved together. The statistics include sum, average, minimum, maximum, and standard deviation. Each time a field and statistic is entered, a new row will be added to the tool pane so more than one statistic can be calculated at once.

Parameters

LabelExplanationData Type
Input Layer

The layer containing polygon features that will be dissolved or combined.

Feature Set
Output Name

The name of the output layer to create on your portal.

String
Dissolve Fields
(Optional)

One or more fields from the input layer that control which polygons are merged. If you don't supply dissolve fields, polygons that share a common border (that is, they are adjacent) or polygon areas that overlap will be dissolved into one polygon.

If you do supply fields, polygons that share a common border and contain the same value in one or more fields will be dissolved. For example, if you have a layer of counties and each county has a State_Name attribute, you can dissolve boundaries using the State_Name attribute. Adjacent counties will be merged together if they have the same value for State_Name. The end result is a layer of state boundaries. If two or more fields are specified, the values in these fields must be the same for the boundary to be dissolved.

Field
Summary Fields
(Optional)

A list of field names and statistical summary type that you wish to calculate for all points within each polygon. The count of points within each polygon is always returned. The following statistic types are supported:

  • Sum—The total value.
  • Minimum—The smallest value.
  • Max—The largest value.
  • Mean—The average or mean value.
  • Standard deviation—The standard deviation.

Value Table

Derived Output

LabelExplanationData Type
Output

The output polygon layer with dissolved boundaries.

Feature Set

arcpy.sfa.DissolveBoundaries(inputLayer, outputName, {dissolveFields}, {summaryFields})
NameExplanationData Type
inputLayer

The layer containing polygon features that will be dissolved or combined.

Feature Set
outputName

The name of the output layer to create on your portal.

String
dissolveFields
[dissolveFields,...]
(Optional)

One or more fields from the input layer that control which polygons are merged. If you don't supply dissolve fields, polygons that share a common border (that is, they are adjacent) or polygon areas that overlap will be dissolved into one polygon.

If you do supply fields, polygons that share a common border and contain the same value in one or more fields will be dissolved. For example, if you have a layer of counties and each county has a State_Name attribute, you can dissolve boundaries using the State_Name attribute. Adjacent counties will be merged together if they have the same value for State_Name. The end result is a layer of state boundaries. If two or more fields are specified, the values in these fields must be the same for the boundary to be dissolved.

Field
summaryFields
[[Field, Type],...]
(Optional)

A list of field names and statistical summary type that you wish to calculate for all points within each polygon. The count of points within each polygon is always returned. The following statistic types are supported:

  • SUM—The total value.
  • MIN—The smallest value.
  • MAX—The largest value.
  • MEAN—The average or mean value.
  • STDDEV—The standard deviation.

Value Table

Derived Output

NameExplanationData Type
output

The output polygon layer with dissolved boundaries.

Feature Set

Environments

Licensing information

  • Basic: Requires your account in ArcGIS Enterprise to have the Perform Analysis privilege
  • Standard: Requires your account in ArcGIS Enterprise to have the Perform Analysis privilege
  • Advanced: Requires your account in ArcGIS Enterprise to have the Perform Analysis privilege

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