Group By Proximity (GeoAnalytics)

Summary

Groups features that are within spatial or spatiotemporal proximity to each other.

The following are examples of questions that can be answered by Group By Proximity workflows:

• Which roads are connected?
• Where are there groups of crime that happened within a close distance and time of each other?
• Are there groups of polygons that overlap each other?

Illustration

Usage

• This geoprocessing tool is available with ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9.1 or later.

• The output result is a copy of the input with a new field named group_id. The group_id field represents the grouping of features. Features with the same group_id value are in the same group. The group numbers represent membership in a particular group and don't imply value. The group numbers may not be sequential or the same number in repeat use of the tool. Results will be symbolized with eight groups. If there are more than eight groups in the result, all groups will be symbolized with eight colors by default. You can modify the symbology to show each unique group by symbolizing with unique symbols on the group_id field.

• The tool supports the following combinations of relationships:

  • A spatial relationship
  • A spatial relationship and a temporal relationship
  • A spatial relationship and an attribute relationship
  • A spatial relationship, a temporal relationship, and an attribute relationship
  Features are grouped when all specified relationships are met.

• The supported spatial relationships and input geometries are described in the following table:

  Input geometry type	Intersects	Touches	Geodesic Near	Planar Near
  Point
  Polyline
  Polygon

  Overlay method	Description
  Intersects	Features intersect when features or portions of features overlap. This is the default.
  Touches	Features touch another feature if they have an intersecting vertex, but the features do not overlap.
  Geodesic Near	Features are near if a vertex or edge is within a given geodesic distance of another feature.
  Planar Near	Features are near if a vertex or edge is within a given planar distance of another feature.

• To use the Spatial Relationship parameter's Planar Near option, the Input Layer parameter value must be projected or the output coordinate system is set to a projected coordinate system.

• The supported temporal relationships and temporal types are described in the following table:

  Input temporal type	Intersects	Near
  None
  Instant
  Interval

  Temporal relationship method	Description
  Intersects	Features intersect when any part of a feature's time overlaps another.
  Near	Features are near one another if a feature's time is within a given time distance of another feature.

• Attribute expressions are a symmetric operation. The tool takes a single input layer that is compared to itself when grouping. Because of this, the input layer is denoted as both a and b in the ArcGIS Arcade expression, and all expressions need to include both a and b. For example, to group all records when the Amount field has the same value, use the following expression: $a["Amount"] == $b["Amount"].

• You can improve performance of the Group By Proximity tool by doing one or more of the following:

  • Set the extent environment so that you only analyze data of interest.
  • When using the Spatial Relationship parameter's Planar Near or Geodesic Near option, use a smaller Spatial Near Distance parameter value.
  • When using the Spatial Relationship parameter, the Planar Near option is faster than the Geodesic Near option.
  • When using the Temporal Relationship parameter's Near option, use a smaller Temporal Near Distance parameter value.
  • Use data that is local to where the analysis is being run.

• This geoprocessing tool is powered by ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server. Analysis is completed on your GeoAnalytics Server, and results are stored in your content in ArcGIS Enterprise.

• When running GeoAnalytics Server tools, the analysis is completed on the GeoAnalytics Server. For optimal performance, make data available to the GeoAnalytics Server through feature layers hosted on your ArcGIS Enterprise portal or through big data file shares. Data that is not local to your GeoAnalytics Server will be moved to your GeoAnalytics Server before analysis begins. This means that it will take longer to run a tool, and in some cases, moving the data from ArcGIS Pro to your GeoAnalytics Server may fail. The threshold for failure depends on your network speeds, as well as the size and complexity of the data. It is recommended that you always share your data or create a big data file share.

  Learn more about sharing data to your portal

  Learn more about creating a big data file share through Server Manager

Parameters

Dialog

Label	Explanation	Data Type
Input Layer	The point, line, or polygon features that will be grouped.	Feature Set
Output Name	The name of the output feature service. The name of the output feature service with grouped features represented by a new field named group_id	String
Spatial Relationship	Specifies the type of relationship that features will be grouped by. Intersects—Features will be grouped when features or portions of features overlap. This is the default. Touches—Features will be grouped with another feature if they have an intersecting vertex, but the features do not overlap. Planar Near—Features will be grouped when a vertex or edge is within a given planar distance of another feature. Geodesic Near—Features will be grouped when a vertex or edge is within a given geodesic distance of another feature.	String
Spatial Near Distance (Optional)	The distance that will be used to group near features. This parameter is only used when the Spatial Relationship parameter value is Planar Near or Geodesic Near.	Linear Unit
Temporal Relationship (Optional)	Specifies the time criteria that will be used to match features. When the parameter is set to Intersects or Near, features are grouped when both the spatial and time criteria are met. Time must be enabled on the input to support this option. Intersects—Features will be grouped when any part of a feature's time overlaps another feature. This is the default. Near—Features will be grouped when the feature's time is within a range of time of another feature. None—Time will not be used to group features.	String
Temporal Near Distance (Optional)	The temporal distance that will be used to group near features. This parameter is only used when the Temporal Relationship parameter value is Near.	Time Unit
Data Store (Optional)	Specifies the ArcGIS Data Store where the output will be saved. The default is Spatiotemporal big data store. All results stored in a spatiotemporal big data store will be stored in WGS84. Results stored in a relational data store will maintain their coordinate system. Spatiotemporal big data store—Output will be stored in a spatiotemporal big data store. This is the default. Relational data store—Output will be stored in a relational data store.	String
Attribute Relationship (Optional)	An ArcGIS Arcade expression that will be used to group features by. For example, $a["Amount"] == $b["Amount"] groups features when the Amount field has the same value.	String

Derived Output

Label	Explanation	Data Type
Output Feature Layer	A new feature class with grouped features represented by a new field named group_id.	Feature Set

Python

arcpy.geoanalytics.GroupByProximity(input_layer, output_name, spatial_relationship, {spatial_near_distance}, {temporal_relationship}, {temporal_near_distance}, {data_store}, {attribute_relationship})

Name	Explanation	Data Type
input_layer	The point, line, or polygon features that will be grouped.	Feature Set
output_name	The name of the output feature service. The name of the output feature service with grouped features represented by a new field named group_id	String
spatial_relationship	Specifies the type of relationship that features will be grouped by. INTERSECTS—Features will be grouped when features or portions of features overlap. This is the default. TOUCHES—Features will be grouped with another feature if they have an intersecting vertex, but the features do not overlap. NEAR_PLANAR—Features will be grouped when a vertex or edge is within a given planar distance of another feature. NEAR_GEODESIC—Features will be grouped when a vertex or edge is within a given geodesic distance of another feature.	String
spatial_near_distance (Optional)	The distance that will be used to group near features. This parameter is only used when the spatial_relationship parameter value is NEAR_PLANAR or NEAR_GEODESIC.	Linear Unit
temporal_relationship (Optional)	Specifies the time criteria that will be used to match features. When the parameter is set to INTERSECTS or NEAR, features are grouped when both the spatial and time criteria are met. Time must be enabled on the input to support this option. INTERSECTS—Features will be grouped when any part of a feature's time overlaps another feature. This is the default. NEAR—Features will be grouped when the feature's time is within a range of time of another feature. NONE—Time will not be used to group features.	String
temporal_near_distance (Optional)	The temporal distance that will be used to group near features. This parameter is only used when the temporal_relationship parameter value is Near.	Time Unit
data_store (Optional)	Specifies the ArcGIS Data Store where the output will be saved. The default is SPATIOTEMPORAL_DATA_STORE. All results stored in a spatiotemporal big data store will be stored in WGS84. Results stored in a relational data store will maintain their coordinate system. SPATIOTEMPORAL_DATA_STORE—Output will be stored in a spatiotemporal big data store. This is the default. RELATIONAL_DATA_STORE—Output will be stored in a relational data store.	String
attribute_relationship (Optional)	An ArcGIS Arcade expression that will be used to group features by. For example, $a["Amount"] == $b["Amount"] groups features when the Amount field has the same value.	String

Derived Output

Name	Explanation	Data Type
output	A new feature class with grouped features represented by a new field named group_id.	Feature Set

Code sample

GroupByProximity example (stand-alone script)

The following Python window script demonstrates how to use the GroupByProximity function.

# Name: GroupByProximity.py
# Description: Group roads together that touch
#
# Requirements: ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server

# Import system modules
import arcpy

# Set local variables
inFeatures = "https://myGeoAnalyticsMachine.domain.com/geoanalytics/rest/services/DataStoreCatalogs/bigDataFileShares_cityData/BigDataCatalogServer/roads"
outFS = "groupedRoads"
overlayType = "TOUCHES"
dataStore = "SPATIOTEMPORAL_DATA_STORE"

# Run Group By Proximity
result = arcpy.geoanalytics.GroupByProximity(inFeatures, outFS, 
                                 overlayType, data_store=dataStore)

Environments

Output Coordinate System, Extent, Current Workspace

Special cases

Output Coordinate System

The coordinate system that will be used for analysis. Analysis will be completed in the input coordinate system unless specified by this parameter. For GeoAnalytics Tools, final results will be stored in the spatiotemporal data store in WGS84.

Licensing information

• Basic: Requires ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server
• Standard: Requires ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server
• Advanced: Requires ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server