ArcGIS Overlay Analysis - Raster & Vector Overlay

Overlay Analysis ArcGIS

Overlay analysis is a technique for applying a common scale of values to diverse and dissimilar inputs to create an integrated analysis.

Table of Contents

There are two methods for performing overlay analysis:

Feature overlay– represents points, lines, and polygons.
Raster overlay– represents each cell of each layer references the same geographic location.

The Overlay toolset contains tools to overlay multiple Feature classes.

Tool	Uses
Zonal Stati s tics	Summarizes values in a raster layer by zones in another layer.
Combine	Assigns a value to each cell in the output layer based on unique combinations of values from several input layers.
Weighted Overlay	Automates the raster overlay process and lets you assign weights to each layer before adding.
Weighted Sum	Overlays several rasters, multiplying each by their given weight and summing them together.

Tool	Uses
Identity	Computes a geometric intersection of the input features and identity features. The input features or portions of that overlap identity features will get the attributes of those identity features.
Intersect	Features or portions of features which overlap in all layers or feature classes will be written to the output feature class.
Symmetrical difference	Features or portions of features in the input and update features that do not overlap will be written to the output feature class.
Union	Computes a geometric union of the input features. All features and their attributes will be written to the output feature class.
Update	The attributes and geometry of the input features are updated by the update features in the output feature class.