How Weighted Overlay works

Release 9.3 Last modified September 7, 2011 Weighted Overlay is a technique for applying a common measurement scale of values to diverse and dissimilar inputs to create an integrated analysis.

Geographic problems often require the analysis of many different factors. For instance, choosing the site for a new housing development means assessing such things as land cost, proximity to existing services, slope, and flood frequency. This information exists in different raster layers with different value scales: dollars, distances, degrees, and so on. You can't add a raster of land cost (dollars) to a raster of distance to utilities (meters) and obtain a meaningful result.

Additionally, the factors in your analysis may not be equally important. It may be that the cost of land is more important in choosing a site than the distance to utility lines. How much more important is for you to decide.

Within a single raster layer, you must usually prioritize values. For example, a value of 1 represents slopes of 0 to 5 degrees, a value of 2 represents slopes of 5 to 10 degrees, and a value of 3 represents slopes of 10 to 15 degrees. If slope is a criteria in finding a new site, for example, and your evaluation scale is from 1 to 9 by 1, you might give a scale value of 9 to the input value of 1 (the most suitable areas with least steep slopes), a scale value of 6 to the input value of 2 (the second most suitable slopes), and a scale value of 3 to the input value of 3 (the least suitable, steepest slopes). If it was decided that slopes greater than 15 degrees would not be considered, all input values greater than 3 would be assigned a scale value of restricted to exclude them.

Weighted Overlay only accepts integer rasters as input, such as a raster of land use or soil types. Continuous (floating point) rasters must be reclassified as integer before they can be used. Generally, the values of continuous rasters are grouped into ranges, such as for slope, or Euclidean distance outputs. Each range must be assigned a single value before it can be used in the Weighted Overlay tool. The Reclassify tool allows for such rasters to be reclassified. You can either leave the value assigned to each range (but note the range of values to which the new value corresponds) and assign weights to the cell values in the Weighted Overlay dialog box later, or you can assign weights at the time of reclassifying. With the correct evaluation scale chosen, simply add the raster to the Weighted Overlay dialog box. The cells in the raster will already be set according to suitability or preference, risk, or some similarly unifying scale. The output rasters can be weighted by importance and added to produce an output raster.

The steps for running weighted overlay are:

1. Select an evaluation scaleIn the Weighted Overlay dialog box, select an evaluation scale to use. Values at one end of the scale represent one extreme of suitability (or other criterion); values at the other end represent the other extreme. The default evaluation scale is from 1 to 9 in increments of 1 (least suitable 1, most suitable 9). If your input rasters are already reclassified to a common measurement scale using the Reclassify tool, it is important to select an evaluation scale that matches the scale used when reclassifying. For instance, if rasters were reclassified using a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being least suitable and

10 being most suitable), an evaluation scale of 1 to 10 by 1 should be entered for the evaluation scale in the Weighted Overlay dialog box. 2. Add rastersClick the Add raster row button to open the Add Weighted Overlay dialog box. Click the Input raster drop-down arrow and click a raster, or click the Browse button to browse to an input raster and click Add. Click the Input field drop-down arrow to change the field if desired. Click OK. The raster is added to the Weighted Overlay table. Click the Add raster row button again to enter the next raster, and so on. NOTE: If land use is one of your inputs, you might have a description field that describes each land use type. Using this field instead of the default Value field will make it easier to assign weights to this raster in the Weighted Overlay dialog box. NOTE: Only discrete integer rasters can be used in the Weighted Overlay dialog box. Reclassify continuous rasters before adding them to the Weighted Overlay dialog box. 3. Set scale valuesThe cell values for each input raster in the analysis are assigned values from the evaluation scale. This makes it possible to perform arithmetic operations on rasters that originally held dissimilar types of values. You can change the default values assigned to each cell according to importance or suitability. For instance, a land-use raster added has values representing the land-use type (Forest = 7, Water = 3, Barren land = 1, Scrub land = 10). To find suitable locations on which to build, you would assign scale values depending on which land-use types are more suitable. For example, with an evaluation scale set at 1 to 9 by 9, you might assign the following scale values: Forest = 3, Water = Restricted, Barren land = 9, Scrub land = 7. 4. Assign weights to input rastersEach input raster can be weighted, or assigned a percentage influence, based on its importance. The total influence for all rasters must equal 100 percent. For instance, it might be more important to build a shopping center on soils that are stable than to locate in a popular shopping area. 5. Run the Weighted Overlay toolThe cell values of each input raster are multiplied by the raster's weight (or percent influence). The resulting cell values are added to produce the final output raster.

If the tool was used for suitability modeling (to locate suitable areas), higher values generally indicate that a location is more suitable. If the tool was used to generate a cost surface (to find out how much it will cost to travel through the landscape for instance), high values will generally indicate higher travel costs. You must understand the scale values you apply to input rasters so you know what the values in the output raster mean.

Using Restricted and NoData for the Scale Value

Setting a scale value to Restricted assigns a value to that cell in the output weighted overlay result that is the minimum value of the evaluation scale set, minus one. If there are no inputs to the Weighted Overlay dialog box with cells of NoData, you could use NoData as the scale value to exclude certain values. However, it is safest, and essential if you have NoData cells in any of your inputs, to use Restricted instead. Potentially you could have a result from the Weighted Overlay tool that contains cells of NoData that have come from one or more of the inputs (NoData on any input equals NoData in the result) and Restricted areas that you purposely excluded. NoData and Restricted values should not be confused. Each serves a specific purpose. There may be areas of NoData where you don't know the value, which are actually suitable areas. If you use NoData instead of Restricted to exclude certain cell values, and there is NoData in one or more inputs, you will not know if a cell of NoData means the area is restricted from use or whether there was no input data available in that location.

Take care using Restricted for the scale value when creating a cost surface. Since using Restricted gives a value to the cell that is the minimum value of the evaluation scale, minus 1, your restricted areas will appear to be given the lowest cost, when they are actually excluded from the analysis. You should assign a high cost or set the scale value to NoData for areas you want exclude from the analysis instead.

Weighted Overlay
Release 9.3 Last modified September 7, 2011 Print all topics in : "Overlay (Spatial Analyst)" Related Topics
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Understanding overlay analysis

Overlays several rasters using a common measurement scale and weights each according to its importance. Learn more about how Weighted Overlay works

Illustration

In the illustration, the two input rasters have been reclassified to a common measurement scale of 1 to 3. Each raster is assigned a percentage influence. The cell values are multiplied by their percentage influence, and the results are added together to create the output raster. For example, consider the top left cell. The values for the two inputs become (2 * 0.75) = 1.5 and (3 * 0.25) = 0.75. The sum of 1.5 and 0.75 is 2.25. Because the output raster from Weighted Overlay is integer, the final value is rounded to 2. Usage tips Command line and Scripting
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All input rasters must be integer. A floating-point raster must first be converted to an integer raster before it can be used in Weighted Overlay. The Reclassification tools provide an effective way to do the conversion. Each value class in an input raster is assigned a new value based on an evaluation scale. These new values are reclassifications of the original input raster values. A restricted value is used for areas you want to exclude from the analysis. Each input raster is weighted according to its importance or its percent influence. The weight is a relative percentage, and the sum of the percent influence weights must equal 100 percent.

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Changing the remap_assignment evaluation scale value or the percentage influences can change the results of the weighted overlay analysis. The following environment settings affect this tool: o General: Current Workspace, Scratch Workspace, Output Coordinate system, Output Extent, Snap Raster. o Raster Analysis: Cell size, Mask. o Raster Storage: See the Raster Storage settings for the particular output raster format selected.

Command line syntax An overview of the Command Line window WeightedOverlay_sa <raster {influence} {field} {remap};raster {influence} {field} {remap}...> <out_raster> Parameter Explanation The weighted overlay table allows the calculation of a multiple criteria analysis between several rasters.
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Data Type

Raster The raster of the criteria being weighted. Influence The influence of the raster compared to the other criteria as a percentage of 100. Field The field of the criteria raster to use for weighting. Remap The scaled weights for the criterion. In addition to numerical values for the scaled weights in Remap, the following options are available: RESTRICTED Assigns the restricted value (the minimum value of the evaluation scale set, minus one) to cells in the output, regardless of whether other input rasters have a different scale value set for that cell. o NODATA Assigns NoData to cells in the output, regardless of whether other input rasters have a different scale value set for that cell.
o

<raster {influence} {field} {remap};raster {influence} {field} {remap}...>

(Raster Layer Double Field Remap; Raster Layer Double Field Remap;...)

<out_raster> The raster to be created. Data types for geoprocessing tool parameters

Raster Dataset

Command line example

WeightedOverlay "('C:\data\landuse' 65 'Value' (3 3; 4 4; 10 10;NODATA -1); 'C:\data\school' 35 'Value' (1 1; 4 4; 5 5; 8 8; 9 9; NODATA -1));1 10 1" C:\data\out_wot

Scripting syntax About getting started with writing geoprocessing scripts WeightedOverlay_sa (in_weighted_overlay_table, out_raster)

Parameter

Explanation The weighted overlay table allows the calculation of a multiple criteria analysis between several rasters.
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Data Type

Raster The raster of the criteria being weighted. Influence The influence of the raster compared to the other criteria as a percentage of 100. Field The field of the criteria raster to use for weighting. Remap The scaled weights for the criterion. In addition to numerical values for the scaled weights in Remap, the following options are available: RESTRICTED Assigns the restricted value (the minimum value of the evaluation scale set, minus one) to cells in the output, regardless of whether other input rasters have a different scale value set for that cell. o NODATA Assigns NoData to cells in the output, regardless of whether other input rasters have a different scale value set for that cell.
o

in_weighted_overlay_table (Required)

(Raster Layer Double Field Remap; Raster Layer Double Field Remap;...)

out_raster (Required)

The raster to be created.

Raster Dataset

Data types for geoprocessing tool parameters

Script example
# WeightedOverlay_sample.py # Description: # Overlays several rasters using a common scale and weighing # each according to its importance. # Requirements: None # Author: ESRI # Date: Sept 6, 2005 # Import system modules import arcgisscripting # Create the Geoprocessor object gp = arcgisscripting.create() try: # Set local variables sInWOTable = "('C:\data\landuse' 65 'Value' (3 3; 4 4; 10 10;NODATA -1); _ 'C:\data\school' 35 'Value' (1 1; 4 4; 5 5; 8 8; 9 9; NODATA -1));1 10 1" sOutWOT = "C:/data/out_wot" # Check out Spatial Analyst extension license gp.CheckOutExtension("Spatial")

# Process: WeightedOverlay gp.WeightedOverlay_sa(sInWOTable, sOutWOT) except: # If an error occurred while running a tool, then print the messages. print gp.GetMessages()

Map Algebra syntax Not Available ArcObjects syntax Not Available

Overlay analysis
Release 9.3 Last modified December 9, 2008 Related Topics
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Print all topics in : "Analysis concepts"

An introduction to the fundamental tools An overview of the Overlay toolset An overview of the Spatial Analyst toolbox

One of the most basic questions asked of a GIS is, "What's on top of what?" Here are some examples:
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What land use is on top of what soil type? What parcels are within the 100-year floodplain? ("Within" is just another way of saying "on top of.") What roads are within what counties? What wells are within abandoned military bases?

To answer such questions before the days of GIS, cartographers would create maps on clear plastic sheets and overlay these sheets on a light-table in order to create a new map of the overlain data. Because overlays yield such valuable information, it was paramount to the development of GIS. An overlay operation is much more than a simple merging of line work; all the attributes of the features taking part in the overlay are carried through, as shown in the example below where parcels (polygons) and flood zones (polygons) are overlaid (using the Union tool) to create a new polygon layer. The parcels are split where they are crossed by the flood zone boundary, and new polygons are created. The FID_flood value indicates whether polygons are outside (-1) or inside the flood zone, and all polygons retain their original land-use category values.

The total area of each land-use type in the flood zone can be calculated by selecting all polygons within the flood zone (using the Select Layer By Attribute tool) and summarizing the area by landuse type (using the Frequency tool). The following is a pie chart illustrating the result of this calculation.

Similarly, you'd overlay watershed boundaries with a vegetation layer to calculate the amount of each

vegetation type in each watershed. In the illustration below, logging roads (lines) and vegetation types (polygons) are overlaid to create a new line layer. The lines have been split where they were intersected by polygons, and each line feature has been assigned the attributes of both original layers. The lines are shown symbolized by the vegetation type associated with each.

You can use overlay analysis to combine the characteristics of several datasets into one. You can then find specific locations or areas that have a certain set of attribute valuesthat is, match the criteria you specify. This approach is often used to find locations that are suitable for a particular use or are susceptible to some risk. For example, you'd overlay layers of vegetation type, slope, aspect, soil moisture, and so on, to find areas susceptible to wildfire. Below is an example of an overlay of steep slopes, soils, and vegetation. New polygons are created by the intersection of the input polygon boundaries. The resulting polygons have all the attributes of the original polygons.

Overlay analysis is often used in conjunction with other types of analysis. For example, you might include layers derived from proximity analysis (such as the Buffer tool) or surface analysis (the Slope or Aspect tool). Similarly, you'll likely perform additional analysis on the results of the overlay, such as extraction to select a subset of features, or generalization (to dissolve polygons, for example). Often, overlay is one step in an analysis process or model and may occur at various points in the process. Overlay methods

In general, there are two methods for performing overlay analysisfeature overlay (overlaying points, lines, or polygons) and raster overlay. Some types of overlay analysis lend themselves to one or the other of these

methods. Overlay analysis to find locations meeting certain criteria is often best done using raster overlay (although you can do it with feature data). Of course, this also depends on whether your data is already stored as features or rasters. It may be worthwhile to convert the data from one format to the other to perform the analysis.

Feature overlay
The key elements in feature overlay are the input layer, the overlay layer, and the output layer. The overlay function splits features in the input layer where they are overlapped by features in the overlay layer. New areas are created where polygons intersect. If the input layer contains lines, the lines are split where polygons cross them. These new features are stored in the output layerthe original input layer is not modified. The attributes of features in the overlay layer are assigned to the appropriate new features in the output layer along with the original attributes from the input layer. Below is an example of line-on-polygon overlay. The line is split at the polygon boundaries, and each of the resulting line features has the original line attributes plus the attributes of the polygon it fell within.

Raster overlay
In raster overlay, each cell of each layer references the same geographic location. That makes it well suited to combining characteristics for numerous layers into a single layer. Usually, numeric values are assigned to each characteristic, allowing you to mathematically combine the layers and assign a new value to each cell in the output layer. Below is an example of raster overlay by addition. Two input rasters added together to create an output raster with the values for each cell summed.

This approach is often used to rank attribute values by suitability or risk, then add them to produce an overall rank for each cell. The various layers can also be assigned a relative importance to create a weighted ranking. (The ranks in each layer are multiplied by that layer's weight value before being summed with the other layers.) Below is an example of raster overlay by addition for suitability modeling. Three raster layers (steep slopes, soils, and vegetation) are ranked for development suitability on a scale of 1 to 7. When the layers are added (bottom) each cell is ranked on a scale of 3 to 21.

Alternatively, you can assign a value to each cell in the output layer based on unique combinations of values from several input layers. Overlay tools

Vector overlay tools

Feature overlay tools are located in the Analysis toolbox, Overlay toolset. Conceptually, the tools are similar

they differ by the feature types they allow you to overlay, by whether you can overlay multiple layers at one time, and by which input and overlay features are maintained in the output layer. Binary or Multiple Input data Overlay type Binary Multiple Binary Multiple Binary Any Any Polygon Polygon Any Overlay data type Polygon N/A Polygon N/A Polygon

Tool Identity Intersect Symmetrical difference Union Update

Output Input features, split by overlay features Only features common to all input layers Features common to either input layer or overlay layer, but not both All input features Input feature geometry replaced by update layer

The table below shows the results of overlaying an input layer and an overlay layer using each tool. Input features Overlay features Operation Result

Identity

Intersect

Symmetrical difference

Union

Update

Raster overlay tools

Raster overlay tools are located in several toolsets in the Spatial Analyst toolbox. Spatial Analyst is an ArcGIS extension that is licensed separately. If your site has a Spatial Analyst license and the Spatial Analyst extension has been installed, you will have access to the Spatial Analyst toolbox in ArcToolbox. Tool Zonal Statistics Combine Single Output Map Algebra Weighted Overlay Weighted Sum Location What it does Summarizes values in a raster layer by zones (categories) in another layerfor Zonal toolset example, calculating the mean elevation for each vegetation category Assigns a value to each cell in the output layer based on unique combinations Local toolset of values from several input layers Map Algebra Lets you combine multiple raster layers using an expression you enterfor example, you can add several ranked layers to create an overall ranking toolset Automates the raster overlay process and lets you assign weights to each layer Overlay before adding (you can also specify equal influence to create an unweighted toolset overlay) Overlay Overlays several rasters, multiplying each by its given weight and summing toolset them together

Understanding overlay analysis

Release 9.3 Last modified January 13, 2012 Related Topics
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Print all topics in : "Overlay analysis"

About performing analysis in Spatial Analyst Overlay analysis sample applications An overview of the Overlay tools

Note: This topic was updated for 9.3.1. Weighted overlay is a technique for applying a common scale of values to diverse and dissimilar input to create an integrated analysis. Geographic problems often require the analysis of many different factors. For instance, choosing the site for a

new housing development means assessing such things as land cost, proximity to existing services, slope, and flood frequency. This information exists in different rasters with different value scales: dollars, distances, degrees, and so on. You cannot add a raster of land cost (dollars) to a raster of distance to utilities (meters) and obtain a meaningful result. Additionally, the factors in your analysis may not be equally important. It may be that the cost of land is more important in choosing a site than the distance to utility lines. How much more important is for you to decide. Even within a single raster, you must prioritize values. Some values in a particular raster may be ideal for your purposes (for example, slopes of 0 to 5 degrees), while others may be good, others bad, and still others unacceptable. The Weighted Overlay tool lets you take all these issues into consideration. It reclassifies values in the input rasters onto a common evaluation scale of suitability or preference, risk, or some similarly unifying scale. The input rasters are weighted by importance and added together to produce an output raster. The steps are summarized below. 1. A numeric evaluation scale is chosen. This may be 1 to 5, 1 to 9, or any other scale. Values at one end of the scale represent one extreme of suitability (or other criterion); values at the other end represent the other extreme. 2. The cell values for each input raster in the analysis are assigned values from the evaluation scale and reclassified to these values. This makes it possible to perform arithmetic operations on the rasters that originally held dissimilar types of values. 3. Each input raster is weighted, or assigned a percent influence, based on its importance to the model. The total influence for all rasters equals 100 percent. 4. The cell values of each input raster are multiplied by the rasters' weights. 5. The resulting cell values are added together to produce the output raster. The Weighted Overlay tool accepts only discrete rasters (integer values) as input. Continuous rasters must be reclassified to discrete rasters before they can be used.

The two input rasters above have been reclassified to an evaluation scale of 1 to 3. Each raster is assigned a percentage influence. The influence of the first raster is 75 percent, and the influence of the second is 25 percent. The cell values are multiplied by their influence percentages, then added together to create the output raster. Take the top left cell as an example (2 * .75) = 1.5 and (3 * .25) = .75. The sum of 1.5 and .75 is 2.25. Because the output raster is discrete, the value is rounded to 2. A weighted overlay example In the following example, a location for a new urban park is being chosen. Three factors will be considered: land use, population density, and distance to existing parks. The goal is to find an area of suitable land use, such as vacant land, in a neighborhood of high population density to provide green space in crowded areas that is not already served by an existing park.

The input rasters to the weighted overlay are displayed in the image above. They are (from left to right) land use, population density, and distance to parks. The weighted overlay model is displayed in the image below as a process in Model Builder.

Each value class in each input raster is assigned a new, reclassified value on an evaluation scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represents the lowest suitability and 5 the highest. For instance, in the land-use raster, vacant land is highly suitable, while commercial land is not. In the population density raster, suitability values are high for highdensity areas and low for low-density areas. In the distance to parks raster, suitability increases with distance from existing parks because areas far from existing parks are inadequately served. Any class can also be assigned a restricted value, which means that the corresponding area is unacceptable or cannot be used. Restricted areas are excluded from the analysis. In the land-use raster, for example, airports and water bodies are restricted. Each of the three input rasters is then weighted. In this weighted overlay, land use has a 50 percent influence, population density a 15 percent influence, and distance from parks a 35 percent influence. When the weighted overlay is run, a raster of overall suitability is created.

The most suitable areas are shown in red. Orange areas are next, followed by green. Blue and purple areas are least suitable, and white areas are restricted. Modifying the suitability values or the influence percentages will produce different results.