GEOUOW.Maps Analysis Tools

Summarize data

These tools calculate total counts, lengths, areas, and basic descriptive statistics of features and their attributes within areas or near other features.

Aggregate Points

This tool works with a layer of point features and a layer of area features. It first figures out which points fall within each area. After determining this point-in-area spatial relationship, statistics about all points in the area are calculated and assigned to the area. The most basic statistic is the count of the number of points within the area, but you can get other statistics as well.

Join Features

This tool transfers the attributes of one layer or table to another based on spatial and attribute relationships. Statistics can then be calculated on the joined features.

Summarize Nearby

This tool finds features within a specified distance of features in the analysis layer. Distance can be measured as a straight-line distance or a selected travel mode. Statistics are then calculated for the nearby features.

Summarize Within

This tool finds features (and portions of features) within the boundaries of areas in the analysis layer.

Summarize Center and Dispersion Tool

This tool finds the central feature, mean centre, median centre, or ellipse (directional distribution) of point features.

Find Existing Locations

This tool selects existing features in your study area that meet a series of criteria you specify. These criteria can be based on attribute queries (for example, parcels that are vacant) and spatial queries (for example, parcels within 1 mile of a river).

Derive New Locations

This tool derives new features in your study area that meet a series of criteria you specify. These criteria can be based on attribute queries (for example, parcels that are vacant) and spatial queries (for example, parcels that are within flood zones).

Find Similar Locations

Based on criteria you specify, the Find Similar Locations tool measures the similarity of locations in your candidate search layer to one or more reference locations.

Choose Best Facilities Tool

This tool finds the set of facilities that will best serve demand from surrounding areas.

Create Viewshed

This tool creates areas where an observer can see objects on the ground. The input analysis points can represent either observers (such as people on the ground or lookouts in a fire tower) or observed objects (such as wind turbines, water towers, vehicles, or other people). The result areas are those areas where the observers can see the observed objects and vice versa: the observed objects can see the observers. The output is typically used in site suitability and selection analysis.

Create Watersheds

This tool identifies catchment areas based on the locations you specify.

Trace Downstream

This tool determines the trace, or flow path, in a downstream direction from the points in your analysis layer.

Find Centroids

This tool creates central point features from multipoint, line, and area features.

Find Locations

These tools find features that pass any number of criteria that you specify. They are typically used for site selection, where the objective is to find places that satisfy multiple criteria.

Data enrichment

These tools help you explore the character of areas. Detailed demographic data and statistics are returned for your chosen areas. Comparative information can also be reported for expanded areas such as counties and states.

Enrich Layer

This tool enriches your point or area data by getting facts about the people, places, and businesses that surround your data locations. Enrich Layer enables you to answer new questions about locations that you cannot answer with maps alone; for example, What kind of people live here? What do people like to do in this area? What are their habits and lifestyles? What kind of businesses are there in this area?
The result will be a new layer containing all demographic and geographic information from given data collections. This new information is added as fields in the table.

Calculate Density

The Calculate Density tool creates a density map from point or line features by spreading known quantities of some phenomenon (represented as attributes of the points or lines) across the map. The result is a layer of areas classified from least dense to most dense.

Find Hot Spots

The Find Hot Spots tool will determine if there is any statistically significant clustering in the spatial pattern of your data.

Find Outliers

The Find Outliers tool will determine if there are any statistically significant outliers in the spatial pattern of your data.

Find Point Clusters

The Find Point Clusters tool finds clusters of point features within surrounding noise based on their spatial distribution.

Interpolate Points

The Interpolate Points tool allows you to predict values at new locations based on measurements from a collection of points. The tool takes point data with values at each point and returns areas classified by predicted values.

Analyze patterns

These tools help you identify, quantify, and visualize spatial patterns in your data by identifying areas of statistically significant clusters.

Manage data

These tools are used for both the day-to-day management of geographic data and for combining data prior to analysis.

Extract Data

With this tool, you can select and download data for a specified area of interest. Layers that you select will be added to a ZIP file or layer package.

Dissolve Boundaries

Areas that overlap or share a common boundary are merged together to form a single area.
You can control which boundaries are merged by specifying a field.

Generate Tessellations

This tool creates bins of a specified shape and size for the study area.
Bins can be square, hexagonal, transverse hexagonal, triangular, or diamond.

Merge Layers

This tool copies features from 2 layers into a new layer. The layers to be merged must all contain the same feature types (points, lines, or areas). You can control how the fields from the input layers are joined and copied.

Overlay Layers

Overlay Layers combines 2 or more layers into 1 single layer. You can think of overlay as peering through a stack of maps and creating a single map containing all the information found in the stack. In fact, before the advent of GIS, cartographers would literally copy maps onto clear acetate sheets, overlay these sheets on a light table, and hand draw a new map from the overlaid data. Overlay is much more than a merging of line work; all the attributes of the features taking part in the overlay are carried through to the final product. Overlay is used to answer one of the most basic questions of geography: What is on top of what?

Create Buffers

A buffer is an area that covers a given distance from a point, line, or area feature

Buffers are typically used to create areas that can be further analyzed using a tool such as Overlay Layers. For example, if the question is What buildings are within 1 mile of the school?, the answer can be found by creating a 1-mile buffer around the school and overlaying the buffer with the layer containing building footprints. The end result is a layer of those buildings within 1 mile of the school.

Create Drive-Time Areas

Create Drive-Time Areas creates areas that can be reached within a specified drive time or drive distance. It measures out from one or many points (up to 1,000), along roads, to create a new layer.

You may be able to answer your questions solely through visualizing the output areas. Alternatively, you can perform further spatial analysis using the output areas. For instance, running Aggregate Points using drive-time areas with demographic data can help determine which potential store location would likely provide the best customer base for your type of business.

Find Nearest

This tool finds the nearest features and, optionally, reports and ranks the distance to the nearby features. To find what’s nearby, the tool can either measure straight-line distance or a selected travel mode. There are options to limit the number of nearest features to find or the search range in which to find them.

Find Nearest returns a layer containing the nearest features and, optionally, a line layer that links the start locations to their nearest locations. The optional line layer contains information about the start and nearest locations and the distances between.

Plan Routes

Plan Routes determines how to efficiently divide tasks among a mobile workforce.
You provide the tool with a set of stops and the number of vehicles available to visit the stops. The tool assigns the stops to vehicles and returns routes showing how each vehicle can reach their assigned stops in the least amount of time.

The output from Plan Routes includes a layer of stops coded by the routes to which they are assigned, a layer of routes showing the shortest paths to visit assigned stops, and, depending on whether any stops could not be reached, a layer of unassigned stops.

Connect Origins to Destinations

This tool measures the travel time or distance between pairs of points. The tool can report straight-line distances, road distances, or travel times. You provide starting and ending points, and the tool returns a layer containing route lines, including measurements, between the paired origins and destinations. If many origins go to one destination, a table summarizing multiple trips to the destination is included in the output.

Use proximity

These tools help you answer one of the most common questions posed in spatial analysis: What is near what?