How to create OGC Compliant Geometries when Vectorising a Raster

[mcdonnellr]

I’m currently looking at best practices for converting Raster to Vector in ArcGIS, be that Desktop or Pro. 

We utilise FME for Data validation and utilise the OGC standards as a baseline for valid geometries. We regularly receive data from external contractors which has "Geometry Errors" including "Self-Intersections" and "Hole outside of Shell".

The reason we validate the geometries and recommend the OGC standard, is because these geometries are to be added to a national database, which is in turn used for further analysis. If there are Geometry errors, there can be issues in both uploading the data and in using it for analysis.

What I’m hoping the community can help me with is a recommended best practice for creation of OGC compliant vector geometries from raster datasets. 

Has anyone any experience of this, or can help me to create a procedure in ArcGIS

I have utilised the Raster to Polygon tool in ArcGIS to create Polygons, but the "Self-Intersections" issue keeps cropping up. I know this is a "typical" error when converting from Raster to Vector but If anyone can reccomend a proceedure for fixing the issue it would be most helpfull.

[DanPatterson · Accepted solution]

Do you use

Check Geometry (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Repair Geometry (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

many tools perform the checks on tool results, Raster to Polygon may not.

The Repair Geometry link provides documentation on what it accounts for, what it supports and for which data storage system is being used.

You might want to compare Check geometry to your methods to see if there are differences between the methods

[mcdonnellr]

@DanPatterson 

Thank you for your quick reply.

I have used the Check Geometry tool in ArcMap, but not in Pro (currently trying to get pro licenced) the Check Geometry tool dosent flag the self intersections (ArcMap).

The contractors involved have also expressed this to us, that they cant see the errors in ArcGIS, but FME keeps flagging the error.

I will have a look into the Pro Check Geometry tool and see if that flags the issue for me.

[mcdonnellr · Accepted solution]

Hi @DanPatterson ,

Again, thank you for your reply. The Check Geometry tool in Pro will pick up on the 'Self Intersections' and the Repair Geometry tool, with OGC as the Validation Method, will indeed fix the problem. It wont though detect or fix the 'Hole outside of Shell' issue. This does seem to be an issue related to other software being used to derive the Polygons. Once again, Thank you for your responce and guidance!