Latest Contributions by JuanLaguna

The Spatial Analyst extension has many new and improved capabilities in ArcGIS Pro 2.6.  One of the most exciting things is the new Suitability Modeler, which is an interactive way to identify the best location to site things. New and improved tools and functions are available across several analysis categories, including density, distance, extraction, generalization, local, multidimensional, segmentation and classification, surface,  and zonal.  Many more tools, functions and operators have been updated to directly support multiband raster data. If you have been using the Raster Cell Iterator in ArcPy, we’ve added a way to improve the performance. In addition to this overview, we will have several blog posts that cover some of these changes in more detail coming out soon, so remember to check back regularly. Where do I get it? ArcGIS Pro 2.6 was released on July 28, 2020. Click the following link to get to Download page. For a complete summary of all the changes that have been made for this release, have a look at What’s New for ArcGIS Pro 2.6. What’s changed for Spatial Analyst? Here are the main categories of the changes for this release: Suitability Density Distance Zonal Multiband Surface Segmentation and classification General tool and function enhancements ArcPy 1. The new Suitability Modeler If you have used the capabilities of the Spatial Analyst extension in the past to do site selection, you will be familiar with the back-and-forth, iterative and manual process it can take to get to your final answer. Well, there is now a better way! The new Suitability Modeler is a dynamic, exploratory environment of interacting panes, plots, and maps allows you to create refined suitability models. It guides you through the steps and provides immediate feedback, so what you learn in one step may influence your decisions in another. Please give it a try and let us know what you think The following graphic shows the primary interface elements of the Suitability Modeler, including the ribbon, the tabs of the modeler pane, and the transformation graphs.  We’ll have more information coming out soon that will fully introduce the capabilities and the workflow to follow. 2. Density analysis The Kernel Density tool has a new parameter that allows barrier features to be considered when calculating kernel density for the planar method. The tool has also been enhanced to work with the parallel processing environment, and efficiency has been improved by using a new search algorithm. 3. Distance analysis The Optimal Region Connections tool has a new parameter that determines if the paths will continue within the input regions. To follow the pattern established in the Distance toolset where the original tools were moved into their own Legacy Distance category,  the raster functions for distance analysis have been similarly restructured.  In the list of raster functions, those in the Distance group should be the ones used for analysis going forward.  The functions provided in previous releases have been relocated to the new Distance (Legacy) group. The new Optimal Path As Raster raster function has been added to the Distance group. 4. Zonal analysis The Tabulate Area tool now processes overlapping polygon zones and calculates the area for each zone separately. You can also represent the input classes as rows or fields using the Classes as rows in output table parameter. The Zonal Statistics and Zonal Statistics as Table tools and the Zonal Statistics raster function have a new percentile statistics type to compute extreme events. These tools and function can now also process both multidimensional zone and value rasters. Also, have a look at the How the zonal statistics tools work help topic, which has been substantially rewritten to better explain the operation of these tools. The Zonal Histogram tool can now create histogram graphs. You can also represent the input zones as rows or fields using the Zones as rows in output table parameter. 5. Multiband raster analysis Most local operations now have the capability to perform band-wise aggregation for multiband input rasters.  This includes nearly all of the Math tools, functions and operators, as well as the Con tool and Con function. The Equal To Frequency, Greater Than Frequency, Less Than Frequency, Popularity, and Rank tools have a new parameter, Process as multiband, that gives you more control over how multiband input rasters are processed when creating single-band or multiband output.   6. Surface analysis The Aspect tool has a new parameter, Project geodesic azimuths, to correct the angle distortion caused by the output spatial reference. These angles can be used to accurately locate points along the steepest downhill slope. This parameter is available only when the Method parameter is set to Geodesic. The Cut Fill tool now calculates cut and fill operations using eight-way connectivity. 7.  Segmentation and Classification analysis The Train Maximum Likelihood Classifier, Train Random Trees Classifier, and Train Support Vector Machine Classifier tools have a new parameter to contain dimension values in the input training sample feature class. The Export Training Data For Deep Learning tool has a new default option for the Meta Data Format parameter, changing from KITTI Labels to PASCAL Visual Object Classes. The Segment Mean Shift tool has a new parameter for setting the maximum size of a segment. 8. General tool and function enhancements Several other tools have been optimized for improved performance or had specific new capabilities added. Extraction analysis: The Sample tool can now create a point feature class output or a table with new Generate feature class parameter. Generalization analysis: The Region Group tool has been rewritten to perform better. Local analysis: The Combine tool has been rewritten to perform better. There is now no limitation on the number of input rasters that can be specified. Multidimensional raster analysis: The Zonal Statistics and Zonal Statistics as Table tools and the Zonal Statistics raster function can now process both multidimensional zone and value rasters. The How the zonal statistics tools work help topic covers  multidimensional processing in more detail. The Generate Multidimensional Anomaly tool has a new parameter that allows you to calculate anomalies by comparing pixel values to those provided in an external raster dataset. The Mean Calculation Interval parameter also includes a new External Raster option. 9. ArcPy enhancements In the Raster Cell Iterator class in ArcPy, you can now handle NoData cells more efficiently by optionally skipping them with the skipNoData key to increase the performance of your analysis. Spatial Analyst resources Do you have our Spatial Analyst resources blog post bookmarked? Not only does it include a list of links to informative content, it is also updated as new resources become available.  For example, here are some blog posts that explain the Raster Cell Iterator that was introduced in the previous Pro release: Introducing the Raster Cell Iterator Unleash the power of Raster Cell Iterator to perform custom raster analysis Summary As you can see, quite a lot of new functionality and capabilities have been made available in this release. Please download it and give it a try.  As always, we welcome your feedback.  If you happen to encounter any difficulties, please let us know. ... View more

Do you use Spatial Analyst extension for performing raster analysis?  With the release of ArcGIS Pro 2.5, we have made significant changes in the areas of distance analysis, multidimensional raster analysis, and zonal analysis. There is also whole host of improvements across many other areas.  If you are comfortable in ArcPy, there is an exciting new way to perform custom raster analysis.  Also in ArcPy, many new functions are available for analyzing, visualizing, and managing raster data using Python. We will have many more blog posts coming that go into much more detail on some of these changes, and they will be linked to below. Where do I get it? ArcGIS Pro 2.5 was released of in February 6 of this year. Download For a quick summary of all the changes that have been made for these releases, have a look at the What's New topic (and video!) here: What’s New in ArcGIS Pro 2.5    (video) ArcMap Desktop 10.8 and ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8 will be released very soon.  Watch this space, or your usual channels, for more details once they become available. What's changed for Spatial Analyst? Here are the main categories of the changes. Distortion free distance analysis Multidimensional raster analysis Multiband raster analysis Zonal analysis General tool and function enhancements Iterating over raster cells using ArcPy Modifying raster cell values using ArcPy Enhanced multidimensional raster processing with ArcPy Additional raster functions available in ArcPy 1.  Distortion Free Distance Analysis With ArcGIS Pro 2.5, Spatial Analyst sees a significant change in distance analysis capabilities.  First and foremost, a new algorithm for cost-based distance analysis provides more accurate and precise results than before.  By avoiding the distortion in output that was caused by the previously-used network model of cell connectivity, several benefits are achieved: Cost accumulation is measured the same way in all directions. An important special case is that cost distance with a constant cost surface now produces the same output as Euclidean distance mapping. Surface distance over a digital elevation model is computed much more accurately. Paths around barriers are followed more accurately. Cost distance accumulation and allocation analysis have the option to perform the analysis using either a planar or a geodesic method. As part of making this improved capability available, the distance toolset has been reorganized into fewer but more capable tools.  The Corridor tool is carried over as-is. The new tools are: Distance Accumulation Distance Allocation Optimal Path As Line Optimal Path As Raster Optimal Region Connections Rest assured, all the tools that existed in the previous release are still available; they have simply been moved into a new sub-toolset.  We have a help topic that well covers the migration from legacy to distortion free distance tools. To complement the new GP tools, two new raster functions are available in the Distance group: Distance Accumulation Distance Allocation Updates have been made to the following existing raster functions: The Least Cost Path function has been updated to use the Distance Accumulation tool to perform distortion-free distance analysis. The Cost Path function has been updated with a new parameter that allows you to determine a hydrological flow path. Related blog: What's New in the Spatial Analyst Distance Toolset in Pro 2.5   In ArcMap 10.8, the Distance toolset remains basically the same as before.  The only exception is that the Cost Path and Cost Path As Polyline tools have been updated with a new parameter which provides the option to make those tools treat the input backlink raster as a flow direction raster instead. 2.  Multidimensional Raster Analysis As part of the increased focus on multidimensional analysis in the ArcGIS platform, a number of tools in various toolsets have been updated to directly support multidimensional raster data. There is also a new pathway for accessing multidimensional analytical tools directly from the ArcGIS Pro interface. In the Multidimensional Analysis toolset, the following tools have improvements: The Aggregate Multidimensional Raster tool supports additional predefined interval options for aggregation. The Generate Multidimensional Anomaly tool has four new options for the Anomaly Calculation Method parameter. In the Extraction toolset, the Sample tool has several new parameters to process multidimensional data.  When processing this type of data, the tool has options to specify the following: The output table layout, either as rows or columns The time, depth, or other acquisition information associated with the location features to extract information for a given time or calculate statistics within a period of the observation time Lines and polygons as the input location, in addition to points and rasters The Parallel Processing Factor environment In the Zonal toolset, the Zonal Statistics tool, the Zonal Statistics as Table tool, and the Zonal Statistics raster function now have the Process as multidimensional parameter available, which allows you to calculate various statistics on each slice of a multidimensional value raster.  In ArcGIS Pro, for the Raster Layer tab, the new Multidimensional tab is enabled when a multidimensional raster layer or a multidimensional mosaic layer is selected in the Contents pane. It provides tools and functionality for working with multidimensional raster data. 3.  Multiband Raster Analysis Not to be confused with multidimensional rasters, multiband rasters are raster datasets that are composed of two or more raster bands, or layers, where each band is a measure of a single characteristic. The following tools have changes pertaining to how multiband raster data is handled.  The Aggregate Multidimensional Raster tool can now do band-wise aggregation for multiband multidimensional input. The Pick and Cell Statistics tools have a new parameter that allows you more control over how multiband input rasters are processed. The Cell Statistics raster function can calculate single-band or multiband output based on the multiband processing type. 4.  Zonal Analysis In response to an often-requested capability, the Zonal Statistics as Table tool now processes overlapping polygon zones. The statistics for each zone are calculates separately.   5.  General tool and function enhancements In addition to the changes described above, some new other new tools and tool enhancements are available. In the Raster segmentation and classification toolset, a new tool, Linear Spectral Unmixing, has been added to perform subpixel classification and calculate the fractional abundance of different land cover types for individual cells. The Export Training Data For Deep Learning tool has four new parameters. For generalizing rasters, the Aggregate tool now supports the Parallel Processing Factor environment. The Median option for the Aggregation technique now only produces a float output raster, regardless of the input type. The new Aggregate raster function dynamically generalizes a raster in the display at a reduced resolution. When the output from the function is persisted, it will be generated at the full resolution. A new Random raster function is available for creating a dynamic raster on the fly with random cell values.   6.  Iterating over raster cells using ArcPy With ArcGIS Pro 2.5, a powerful new capability to perform custom raster analysis is available to you in ArcPy.  Two classes are introduced that allow you iterate over rasters programmatically. The RasterCellIterator class in the Spatial Analyst module allows you to visit each cell location in a raster. The iterator makes it easy to inspect cell values at each location, as well as neighboring locations. While iterating over a raster, you can read and write cell values. The RasterInfo class in the ArcPy classes describes a set of raster properties that facilitate the creation of a new raster dataset using the Raster object. This class has several methods and properties available. Related blogs: Introducing the Raster Cell Iterator Using the RasterCellIterator to perform custom raster analysis   7. Modifying raster cell values using ArcPy The Raster object now allows you to read cell values using a [row, column] index notation (also known as neighborhood notation).  In addition to reading values, you can also assign a new value to a particular raster cell, thereby modifying the Raster object. Once the values of raster cells have been modified through an assignment, you can persist these changes by calling the save() method on the Raster object.   8. Enhanced multidimensional raster processing using ArcPy The Raster object has more capabilities for processing multidimensional rasters.  The additional properties and methods are: Properties—bandNames, blockSize, noDataValues, properties, and readOnly Methods—addDimension, exportImage, getProperty, getRasterBands, getRasterInfo, read, removeVariables, renameVariable, setProperty, and write   9. Additional raster functions available in ArcPy In the Spatial Analyst module, many new ArcPy functions are available for analyzing, visualizing, and managing raster data using Python.  To keep things organized, they are grouped into functional categories, which you can see from Overview page.   New resources Do you have our Spatial Analyst resources blog post bookmarked? Not only does it include a list of links to informative content, we also work to keep it updated as new resources become available.  For example, here is some of the material that was recently added: Doing more with Euclidean Distance: Barriers and Paths blog post Creating accumulative cost surfaces using directional data blog post Summary That about covers what's changed since the last release.  Once you've downloaded and installed the latest versions of the software, give it a try.  We hope you will enjoy the improvements and enhancements. ... View more