Cluster of M polygons to N homogeneus groups

[ConejeSapiens]

Hi everyone,

I have a region completely covered by M given polygons. Each of them has several attributes.

I need to cluster or group neighbourgh polygons to obtain N, new, bigger ones (N<M).
To group them, I need to make a polygon union and add the values of the attributes of the individual polygons to obtain the attributes of the new polygon.

The point is, that the resulting polygons must have similar attributes values, or as similar as possible.

Can anybody tell me which Spatial Function should I use to do that?

Thanks!!

[JeffreyEvans]

You want to perform a cluster analysis. 1) dissolve your polygons by cluster value, 2) aggregate your attribute data to the clusters and 3) join the aggregated data back to the dissolved polygon feature class.

Here are some previous posts regarding cluster analysis
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/25949-cluster-analysis-based-on-multiple-variables?highlight=cluste...
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/27922-R-Point-Clustering-Tools-Error?highlight=cluster

ArcGIS R tool for cluster analysis
http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=F855D6D1-1422-2418-A0B2-643E6...

Dissolve polygons by cluster value
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?topicname=Dissolve_%28Data_Management%29

Aggregate attributes using summarize data
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgiSDEsktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Summarizing_data_in_a_table

[ConejeSapiens]

Hi Jeff,
I will try to do the cluster following your instructions.
I appreciate your answer very much, thank you.

[ConejeSapiens]

Hi Jeff,
As far as I am reading... the clustering methods, you are referring to, obtain groups of polygons that contain similar attibute data (I mean the distance within the mean attribute value of the group and that of the the group elements is minimized). Is it right?

I am looking for a method that group polygons with different data attribute values, then the group is suppossed to take as a final attribute value the addition of its components and the resulting groups should have similar total values between them.

Example: I sending an png image that illustrates how should I group 6 polygons geographically in 3 clusters.

Can I do this with the R toolbox??, sorry but I don't find the clustering method..... if not, how can I do this in ArcGIS??,

Thanks again!