Alternative to Suitability Analysis for polygons

Question

I'm working on a project for a class at my university and I am working on creating a suitability analysis (with the business analyst license) to determine what areas overlap with a specific polygon layer. I've started it and noticed that I can only use point layers with the tool, and am wondering if there is anything similar I can do to use it with polygon layers, or if I should convert the polygon layers to point layers. Thanks!

thagemeyer · Answer

Thanks for the reply! I'm looking to find out basically how many layers are within a certain area around or overlapping the main polygon layer that I want to run the suitability analysis on. I'm thinking of trying to convert those polygon layers to centroid points like you suggested and some other tools as well as workarounds for the suitability analysis tool.

MarkGroom · Answer

I am ignorant on Business Analyst's Suitability Model, but have worked with ESRI's Spatial Analysis Suitability Model, but what are you trying to find specifically with this Suitability Model?

I am unsure if this would help, but you could calculate the xy centroid of your polygons to be used as your input point features, and then simple spatial analysis to find areas within. You could also calculate area of your polygons before converting to Centroid points, and that will at least hold the sizing information in the points, if size of polygons mean anything to the analysis.