Help with Tabulate Area (Spatial Analyst) tool

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07-29-2014 05:35 PM
MatthewRingel
New Contributor II

I have a shape file of census tracts which I've created buffers around.  Thus the buffered tracts now overlap.  I also have another polygon shape file showing all the parks in the county, with a field showing whether they're maintained by the city, county, or other level of organization.  What I would like to do is add up all the park area in each buffered tract.  I'm expecting that some parks will get counted in more than one tract, since the buffers overlap.  The Tabulate Area tool looks like it would do exactly what I want, but it doesn't seem to work as expected.  When I run it I end up with some tracts showing zero park area even though there is clearly park within the polygon.  If I then select one of those tracts showing zero park area but with parks clearly inside it and run the Tabulate Area tool with the exact same settings, it works as expected and shows me the total sum of the area of parks within that polygon (tract).  I suspect that the tool will only count the area being tabulated once, so if it gets counted in a neighboring tract, it doesn't get counted again even though the park may fall in more then one buffered tract. 

Is there a different tool that does what I want?  Or maybe a different method that would get the result I want?  Thanks!

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3 Replies
MatthewRingel
New Contributor II

I got the solution I needed from elsewhere.  Turns out a spatial join with a proper Field Map was just the right thing.

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Totally not tried...but if you have overlaps there was a blog post regarding this at  Introducing the Spatial Analyst Supplemental tools | ArcGIS Blog‌  buried in there is reference to tabulate areas with overlaps...I don't know what version of Arc it works with, but it is worth a shot...the download site is contained within the missive

MatthewRingel
New Contributor II

Thanks Dan!  It looks like the overlap issue is a known problem (feature?) with the tabulate areas tool.  I'll check that out.  I think I can do what I need with Spatial Join, but it's always nice to have more than one tool in the toolbox.

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