I'm using Arc Map 10.8. I'm trying to do a spatial join to connect Climate Resiliency Scores raster file (data from the Nature Conservancy) with census tract boundaries and demographic data from the American Community Survey. When I try to do a spatial join by location, the climate resiliency layer won't populate and there's no drop down to join by location. There are no attribute fields to join since the climate resiliency layer is just a weighted calculation. Do I need to convert the raster file to a different type? Or does it just need to be georeferenced? Thanks in advance
I think what you want to do is run the Zonal Statistics As Table tool using your tract boundaries as the zone raster and the score raster as your value raster. Then you can join the tables together to get what you want. Make sure the cells size used is small enough so your tracts don't get dropped, and be careful to only process the extent you need so it doesn't take decades to run. Good luck!