Summary
The Experience Builder Chart widget currently supports feature layers but does not support imagery layers (Image Services). Adding native support for imagery layers would enable users to build interactive dashboards that visualize pixel values, temporal profiles, spectral signatures, histograms, and raster statistics directly from imagery without requiring preprocessing into feature layers.
This would unlock many imagery workflows while keeping the no-code Experience Builder authoring experience.
Problem
Imagery is increasingly used as operational data rather than simply a basemap. Users frequently build Experience Builder applications using:
- Satellite imagery
- Drone imagery
- Land cover products
- Elevation models
- Weather and environmental raster services
- Time-enabled multidimensional imagery
However, there is currently no straightforward way to create charts directly from these imagery layers.
To visualize imagery values, users must:
- export raster values
- convert pixels into features
- create custom JavaScript widgets
- develop separate dashboards
These workarounds introduce unnecessary complexity and reduce the value of Experience Builder as a low-code platform.
Proposed Enhancement
Allow the Experience Builder Chart widget to consume imagery layers as a data source.
Supported chart types could include:
- Pixel value profile
- Spectral profile
- Temporal profile (time-enabled imagery)
- Histogram
- Class distribution
- Band comparison
- Raster statistics
- Zonal summaries
Charts should interact with imagery using existing ArcGIS Image Server capabilities and raster functions without requiring feature conversion.
Example Use Cases
1. Agriculture Monitoring
A user clicks a field on a satellite image.
The chart automatically displays:
- NDVI trend throughout the growing season
- vegetation health profile
- rainfall vs vegetation response
No custom development required.
2. Disaster Assessment
An emergency manager selects a wildfire area.
The chart immediately shows:
- burn severity distribution
- before/after vegetation index
- affected land cover percentages
This enables rapid situational awareness during disaster response.
3. Environmental Monitoring
A scientist clicks a lake.
The chart displays:
- chlorophyll concentration over time
- water temperature trend
- turbidity trend
All values are retrieved directly from multidimensional imagery.
4. Urban Heat Island Analysis
Selecting any location produces:
- land surface temperature profile
- comparison between years
- seasonal temperature variation
Ideal for climate adaptation dashboards.
5. National Land Cover Explorer
Users click an administrative boundary.
The chart automatically displays:
- land cover composition
- land cover change through time
- percentage of each class
This mirrors the interactive analytics available in products like the NLCD Land Cover Explorer but could be built entirely within Experience Builder.
Benefits
- Eliminates custom widgets for common imagery analytics
- Enables richer low-code applications
- Makes Image Services first-class citizens in Experience Builder
- Improves support for scientific and environmental workflows
- Encourages adoption of ArcGIS Image Server capabilities
- Reduces preprocessing and data duplication
- Brings parity between vector-based and raster-based analytics
