How to dissolve geodatabase map across two subdivision levels in Arcgis 10.2

ArcGIS Dissolve: Taming Complex Maps Across Subdivision Levels Like a Pro

Okay, so you’re wrestling with a complex map in ArcGIS 10.2 and need to simplify things, right? Maybe you’re drowning in detail and just want to see the bigger picture. That’s where the Dissolve tool comes in – it’s like your map’s personal Marie Kondo, tidying up boundaries and merging features based on shared qualities. Think of it as taking a bunch of scattered puzzle pieces and fitting them together to form a clearer image.

The Dissolve tool is all about aggregation. It takes a bunch of features and merges them based on attributes they share. Imagine you’ve got sales data broken down by county. With Dissolve, you could easily group those counties into larger sales regions, all based on which salesperson is responsible for each area. The tool basically erases the lines between counties handled by the same person, creating a unified territory. Pretty neat, huh?

When you dissolve, you can also crunch some numbers along the way. The tool lets you calculate statistics for the attributes you’re merging. For example, if you’re dissolving counties and have population data for each, you can sum up the populations to get the total population for the new, larger region. ArcGIS tacks these stats onto your output feature class, using names like “SUM_POP” if you summed a field called “POP.”

So, how do you actually dissolve a geodatabase map across two subdivision levels? Let’s break it down:

Let’s picture this in action. Say you have school districts, and each one is split into neighborhoods. You want to dissolve the map to see bigger chunks based on these levels. You’d pick your school district layer as the input, name your output, then select “District” and “Neighborhood” in that order as your dissolve fields. Boom! You get a new map where districts are grouped, and then neighborhoods within each district are further merged based on their attributes.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Clean Data is Key: Make sure your data is squeaky clean before you dissolve. Topological errors can throw a wrench in the works.
• Performance: Dissolve can be a bit of a resource hog, especially with massive datasets. If things are moving slowly, try simplifying your geometries beforehand. Also, Dissolve uses tiling to improve performance on big datasets.
• Multipart Awareness: Think about whether you want multipart features or not. If you end up with multipart features you didn’t want, the “Multipart To Singlepart” tool can split them up.
• Attribute Planning: Plan ahead for how you want to handle attributes. Use those statistics options to calculate useful summaries.
• Check out Pairwise Dissolve: For even better performance, especially with big datasets, look into the Pairwise Dissolve tool. It’s designed for parallel processing.

In a nutshell, the Dissolve tool in ArcGIS 10.2 is your friend when you need to simplify and generalize geographic data. Follow these steps, keep those best practices in mind, and you’ll be dissolving maps like a seasoned pro in no time! Just remember to double-check your data and plan your attribute handling, and you’ll be golden.