Spatial Overlays with Business Analyst 2017 Demographic Data

[StephanieWidas1]

I am noticing some very unusual behavior when running spatial overlays with the 2017 Business Analyst demographic data.  It’s only the 2017 data - - I can run the exact same process on the 2016 data and it runs fine.

Here’s the scenario:  I am using the Spatial Overlay tool in the Business Analyst toolbox to get demographic data for a set of rings.  The rings are a set of various buffer distances around a single point, so they all have the same center point.  The input layer is from the new 2017 demographics data (Business Analyst\\US_2017\\Data\\Demographic Data\\BlockGroups_bg.bds).  When I run the tool on the set of rings, some fields are returning the same value for every single ring (specifically income fields).  Other fields (such as ethnicity) are coming through as expected with different values for each ring.  I ran each ring separately and it appears that all of the rings are getting the field value of the last ring that is processed.  Running each ring separately gives distinct values, but running them all together gives them all the same value.  Again, it’s not happening for all of the demographic fields.  

Has anyone noticed this?  I’m about to submit a ticket to Esri but wanted to reach out to the forum first.

Thanks in advance,

Stephanie

[DanPatterson_Retired]

it almost sounds like a multiring buffer was used to create the rings, but one set was done with a dissolve and the other wasnt

http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/tool-reference/analysis/multiple-ring-buffer.htm

Maybe this is intentional, or maybe an error

[StephanieWidas1]

Hi Dan!  Thank you for the feedback.  The rings were indeed created with the multi-ring buffer, but they are not dissolved.  There is one ring for each distance and they do overlap (no "donuts").  This is the same procedure we've used for a couple years and it works fine with 2015 and 2016 demographic data.  It's just the 2017 data that is causing the problem.  Fortunately we found this during a QC process and before we put the 2017 demographics into production.  What is odd too is that it doesn't do it for all of the demographic fields.  Some fields are processed just fine.  I ran a spatial overlay with all of the fields and one set of rings.  I didn't count all of the fields (way too many), but I'd estimate that somewhere between 1/2 to 2/3 of the fields are returning the errors.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

If you examine the help topic, you will notice that the multirings can be stacked on top of one another, or they can be separated into separate ring.s

I wasn't referring to adjoining rings between discrete zones being dissolved, but those within a particular feature.

I suspect that the behaviour you are observing may be due to the fact that either there may not be enough observations within a zone, should the ring be made discrete, OR they wish to keep some anonymity to the data at that scale.

As long as you are aware of the differences, it would be a good idea if this were are least documented in the documentation... perhaps it is, if not, it should be.

[DanielLee2]

Hi Stephanie, can you please submit an issue? I was not able to reproduce.

Thanks,

Dan 

[StephanieWidas1]

Hi Daniel,

I submitted a ticket last week and have been working with Esri support.  What version of desktop are you using?  The problem seems to be isolated to ArcGIS Desktop/Business Analyst 10.4.1.  The issue couldn't be replicated in 10.6 and assume that it works ok in 10.5.x.  

The errors only occur when running the spatial overlay directly from the toolbox (Business Analyst Tools --> Analysis --> Spatial Overlay) or by calling the spatial overlay in a python script (arcpy.SpatialOverlay_ba).  Using the Analysis wizard on the Business Analyst toolbar provided the correct values.  

I'll be installing 10.6 on a test machine to verify that it runs correctly.  If it does, looks like we will be upgrading sooner than originally planned.

Thank you,

Stephanie

[DanielLee2]

Stephanie,

Thanks for the additional information. I am using 10.6. The fact that you are using 10.4.1 is very important. I will follow up with the analyst that is supporting the support case.

Regards,

Dan

[Jason_RobinsonRobinson]

BUG-000112631

[StephanieWidas1]

I just wanted to follow up on this in case others are experiencing the same issue.

Installing ArcGIS Desktop and Business Analyst 10.6 resolved the issue.  Esri logged a bug for running Spatial overlays in ArcGIS 10.4.1 using the 2017 Demographic data from Business Analyst.

So now on to the 10.6 upgrades...