ArcGIS for Excel - You, me and Spatial Aggregation
Introduction
Spatial aggregation is a fundamental concept in geospatial relationships. When applied appropriately, spatial data can yield concise and relevant results. Within the ArcGIS Microsoft 365 products, ArcGIS for Excel provides techniques for spatial aggregation.
Let’s examine the details of the spatial aggregation and capabilities and outline the benefits.
Understanding Spatial Aggregation
The spatial aggregation process allows for extracting patterns, trends, and relationships from datasets. It enables you to group data points and summarize attributes within a geographic boundary, resulting in a more organized and manageable representation of spatial information.
For example, the City of Redlands has commercial, residential, and industrial development in progress. There are new restaurants and opportunities, including a new train station and parking structure. Let’s plan to explore this in a bit.
The basis of the analysis – Commercial and residential locations
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Resource: Redlands Development Projects
Pick your data
Spatial aggregation can be categorized using different data types, each serving distinct analytical purposes:
- Point Aggregation: Point features are summarized based on count.
- Line Aggregation: Line layers are summarized numerically using only the proportions of the line features that are within the selected input boundary.
- Area Aggregation: Area layers are summarized using only the proportion of the area features that are within the selected input boundary.
For example, map the City of Redlands' Commercial locations, and map the Residential locations to perform an area aggregation to determine the summary of available housing.
The basis of the analysis – North & South sides of Orange Ave., on the west side of Alabama St., to a new building, parking lot, and related site improvements on approximately one-half acre.
The setup
To run this analysis successfully, let's go through the Spatial analysis tool options.
Firstly, let’s select the Layer to summarize. This layer is the base layer. The foundation of the analysis.
Next, select the Summary area type. There are 3 options to choose from: Polygon layer, square, or hex bins.
- Square or hexagon bins: The data aggregation is based on a uniform shape,e which means all the data is aggregated within the same amount of space. These bins can group areas for analysis, summarizing data within specific shapes instead of points.
- Polygon layer: Instead of just seeing individual points, you can calculate statistics (like counts, sums, averages) for all points falling within each polygon's area.
For Bin size, how big do you want your data buckets? This is also dependent on the type of data being used. There are the options to select Miles, Kilometers, Meters, or Feet.
To calculate statistics, specify the fields and statistics to calculate. Polyline and polygon layers require at least one statistic in addition to Count. There are options for Sum, Min, Max, Average, and Standard deviation.
Decide whether to keep areas with no points or determine whether areas that don't contain any input points are included in the output layer; if unchecked, these areas are excluded.
Lastly, add the name of your Result layer. Next, toggle the Save results layer to the ArcGIS option on or off as needed. Finally, choose the appropriate folder for saving.
The setup:
The results:
Our results indicate there are three 0.5 square mile areas within the city's project area for residential and commercial development that have a higher sum of places to live or move to.
Example applications of ESRI Spatial Aggregation
Spatial aggregation has far-reaching capabilities across various industries, enhancing decision-making processes and driving informed plans of action. Some notable applications include:
Environmental Management
Environmental scientists leverage spatial aggregation to monitor and manage natural resources. Aggregating data on vegetation cover, water quality, and wildlife populations enables the assessment of ecosystem health, the identification of environmental risks, and the formulation of conservation strategies.
Resource: Portugal Revamps Wildfires resilience after devasting fires
Public Health
In public health, spatial aggregation supports the analysis of disease outbreaks, healthcare accessibility, and demographic patterns. By aggregating health data within geographic regions, policymakers can identify vulnerable populations, allocate healthcare resources, and design targeted interventions.
Resource: ArcGIS for Microsoft 365
Transportation and Logistics
Spatial aggregation facilitates the optimization of transportation networks and logistics operations. Aggregating data on traffic flow, delivery routes, and transit ridership enables the identification of congestion points, the improvement of route efficiency, and the enhancement of overall transportation systems.
Resource: Vision Zero: Maps Fuel Funding for Equitable Traffic Safety in Louisville
Benefits of ESRI Spatial Aggregation
The implementation of ArcGIS for Excel spatial aggregation tools offers numerous benefits for organizations and analysts.
1. Refined data management
Spatial aggregation simplifies the management of large and complex spatial datasets. By summarizing data into meaningful units.
2. Demonstrate organized potential
Aggregated data provides a clearer picture of spatial patterns and trends, enhancing analytical capabilities. Users can perform more accurate and comprehensive analyses, leading to better-informed decisions and actionable tasks.
3. Visualization and Communication
Spatial aggregation enhances the visualization and communication of spatial data. Aggregated data can be displayed through maps, charts, and reports.
Conclusion
If you are already a user of GIS, you may perform some type of analysis or aggregation in your daily task. Our Spatial aggregation tool is the equivalent of the Summarize within tool as seen in Map viewer. The Summarize Within tool aggregates spatial data within specified boundaries, such as polygons or areas of interest. This tool calculates summary statistics, including count, mean, sum, and standard deviation, for features within each boundary, providing valuable insights into spatial distributions.
Resource: Summarize within
In conclusion, ArcGIS for Excel’s spatial aggregation tools are valuable for geospatial analysts seeking to derive valuable insights from spatial data. By utilizing these tools, organizations can use spatial aggregation to optimize decision-making processes, improve resource allocation, and address complex spatial challenges. As the demand for geospatial analysis continues to grow, ArcGIS for Excel’s innovative solutions strive to meet these growing demands with the use of spatial aggregation.
Additional resources:
Aggregate features and Spatial aggregation
Till next time....
