Areal interpolation reference/predicting to polygons 10.2

[LauraLovgren]

I am working on a project that involves predicting the spread of aquatic macrophytes throughout the state of Illinois. I am using two conditions to predict. Acreage of lakes and secchi depth. (refelction of turbity) I have been using areal interpolation to execute the prediction and I am very close at finishing the project, however this is the first time I am using areal interpolation and I am unsure if my data is being referenced correctly. I have already incorporated the occured events and an areal interpolation has been generated. But I need that interpolation to have a reference to the lakes that events have not yet occured, or not yet been sampled. So my question is: When you are predicting to polygons after you have done an areal interpolation, there is an option to select append all fields from input features. When I use this option, is it referencing both the secchi and acres from this dataset to predict to polygons? Or do I need to find a way to incorporate the two datasets in the original areal interpolation when it asks for a population field under the rate (binomial) type.

[EricKrause]

The append all fields parameter simply copies fields from the input polygons.  For example, suppose you're predicting to a polygon feature class representing lakes, and one of the fields of the feature class is the name of the lake.  If you choose to append all fields, the field with the name will be copied to the output.  If unchecked, all fields will be dropped.  Whether you append or not will not affect the predicted values in the polygons.

[LauraLovgren]

Thanks Eric. So if predicting to polygons does not reference the data I want to predict from, aka the lakes, how do I incorporate them? When I tried incorporating it into the population field in the bi nomial (rate) type, the areal interpolation, it would not reference a source that was not already put in the count field. For example; my count field was a layer that had the past events of macrophytes with the acres and secchi. But when I wanted to use another layer to have a population, (all the lakes in the state of illinois), it would not let me incorporate it. The population field only allows data from the original dataset, the occured events layer. Do you know a way to get around this issue?