Remove overlapping areas based on an attribute field

[HaileyWright1]

Hello, I have a polygon layer that contains overlapping areas. I would like to remove the overlapping areas based on a comparison of the overlapping attribute fields. In this example, keep only the area with the most recent year. I know I can do this by setting a topology rule and editing each overlap individually, but I'm trying to wrap my head around a faster way using the overlay toolset. Thanks for any help!

[JoshuaSharp-Heward · Accepted solution]

Hi Hailey,

Overlay tools (Union, Intersect etc.) can be run with a single input to find self-overlaps, which may very well help out with what you're trying to do! 

How Intersect works—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation 

How Union works—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation 

I imagine in this case you would want to use Intersect! Worth running it and seeing what the output looks like. 

[HaileyWright1]

Thanks for the tip Joshua! The resulting Intersect allowed me to process the overlaps pretty quickly.

Hailey 

[JoshuaSharp-Heward]

Glad that worked out Hailey! If you're happy with the answer mark this question as solved to close it off  

[GISLearner]

Hi Hailey, what steps did you take to do it? I want to do the same thing based on a number attribute, but not sure how to use Intersect and/or Union to do it