Combining points close to one another to run a Collect Events script

[MatthewBrigham]

I have a collection of points and would like to run a Collect Events script on them to determine what the most frequent points in the data are.  The points have been imported using XY Data, and due to some variance in the data, there are slight differences in the lat and long of points that are at the same location.  For example, the points are all at a park, but the points within the park are all different due to these slight variations.  I need a way to combine the points that are close to one another into a common point so that I can run the Collect Events script.  Anyone know how I can do this?

[LaurenRosenshein]

Hi mbrigha1,

The tool that you are looking for is called Integrate, in the Data Management toolbox.  The integrate tool will snap features that are close together to a common location (based on a threshold that you define).  Once you use integrate, you can then use Collect Events to get a count of the number of points at each location.  One word of caution is that Integrate actually changes your input data...so make sure that you do a Copy Features before you use the Integrate tool so that you don't lose your original data.

Hope this helps!

Lauren Rosenshein
Geoprocessing Product Engineer

[MatthewBrigham]

Thanks Lauren, that's exactly the tool I was looking for.  I have one question though.  When I run the integrate, it asks for XY tolerance in meters.  If I were to enter 10 meters, let's say, how does the tool incorporate that into the results.  In other words, how exactly does this tool work?  Thanks.

Matt

[LaurenRosenshein]

Hi Matt,

That's a great question, and actually the answer is a little more involved than it might seem.  There is actually a whitepaper that may help explain some of the basic principles that are being used by integrate.  I think the important thing to remember is that if 2 points are within the threshold distance of eachother, they will both be moved to a point in between them, and that will continue happening as the tool continues to look at more points to see if they are within the threshold distance.  Making sure you pick a threshold that is as small as possible within the context of your analysis is ideal. 

Check out this whitepaper: Understanding Coordinate Management in the Geodatabase for more details.

Hope this helps!

Lauren Rosenshein
Geoprocessing Product Engineer

[ceydak_r_kç_]

Hello Lauren,

First of all, thank you so much, I have informed about  a part of my problem "combining points  in a specified distance" with the data given above. As I understand, Integrate tool will help to do this. Actually i want to collect points in a specified distance, in one point, adding to this i want to see which points are included by this integrated point. Can you pls help me about this issue?

Thanks!!

Ceyda KIRIK�?I
Industrial Engineer