There is an error in the basemap layer of the 2015 data supplied by ESRI as part of the Business Analyst extension
To set the context. I have a map of Portland, Oregon. When I display the map at most scales, I see the Columbia and Willamette rivers, as I should. But when I display the map at a scale anywhere between 100K:1 and 150K:1 the rivers disappear -- the background symbology reverts to that of the land.
I investigated by looking at the basemap supplied with the 2015 data, and the corresponding layer file.
There are multiple group layers named Hydrology and within those groups a layer named Water Area. Those names are suffixed by a pair of numbers indicating the scale at which the layer displays. Eg Water Areas (150 - 100k). When I look at the data source for the Water Area layer at different scales I see the following:
Water Areas (350 - 150k)
Feature Dataset: MapWaterArea
Feature Class: MapWaterArea_1
Water Areas (150 - 100k)
Feature Dataset: MapOceanArea
Feature Class: MapOceanArea_1
Water Areas (100 - 50k)
Feature Dataset: MapWaterArea
Feature Class: MapWaterArea
It seems clear that the 150-100k data is wrong. It is pointing at the Oceans data, not at the Water Area data. And indeed, when I correct the feature class of the 150-100k data to be MapWaterArea_1 I find that the Columbia and Willamette rivers display correctly.
I hope this may be of help to anyone else that runs into this problem (BTW: there could be other Hydrology layers at other scales that are incorrect. I did not exhaustively check them all. It was already a royal pain to correct all the maps I already had based on the incorrect basemap layer)
Rob Stevens
Rob,
This does sound like an issue that has already come up so let me do some double checking internally as I recall it did have to do with some water layers in the 2015 basemap.
Regards,
Jason R.
Despite years having rolled by, no fix by ESRI for this problem has ever been forthcoming.