Subdivide polygons to meet target area size until no area left that meets that threshold

Question

I have a feature class with an irregular polygon that I want to subdivide into parts each with an area of exactly 2000 ha.

The subdivide polygon tool seems like a step in the right direction, but the output produces polygons that are less than 2000 ha since it is dividing the whole study area (irregular polygon with total area of ~ 16 mil ha) into equal parts of approximately 1600 ha. No surprises, this is how the tool should operate...

Is there a way to divide a polygon into areas that meet a specific size until there is no area left that meets that threshold? I.e. as many as possible subdivisions meet the target size of 2000 ha, and there may be a remainder that is < 2000 ha.

Thanks in advance!

Lu

LuanitaSnyman-vanderWalt · Answer

I had a bit of an ""aha/duh" moment now...🙄 ...by dividing my study area by the desired subdivided area ( 2000 ha) I get to a number of areas that would result in subdivided areas of 2000 ha (about 8000 areas). Thus specifying that in the "number of equal parts" setting in the subdivide polygon tool gets me to what I was looking for.

@Laura thank you very much taking the time to reply and for the suggestion!  I am also going to test your approach. I believe it should enable me to select more contiguous areas that meet the desired size.

lmott · Answer

Not sure if it will work by you could try creating a fishnet grid that overlays your irregular polygon. Set the cell size to a value that can aggregate 2000 hectares. You can use the clip tool to clip the grid to the polygon. Add a field to calculate areas of each polygon and then select the cells that meet your condition.