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Bug

The Build Balanced Zones tool in ArcGIS Pro does not create balanced zones.

Last Published: February 19, 2021 ArcGIS Pro
Bug ID Number BUG-000137311
SubmittedFebruary 8, 2021
Last ModifiedJune 5, 2024
Applies toArcGIS Pro
Version found2.6.2
Operating SystemWindows OS
Operating System Version10.0 64 Bit
StatusKnown Limit

Additional Information

The user is seeing "warnings", not "errors". When there is a warning, users are still permitted to execute the tool. When there is an error, users are permitted to execute a tool until something is fixed. For example, user requested for 50 zones and got only 49 for 9419 features in the input. This tool builds zones by aggregating features until the zone building criteria are met. In this case, the zone building criteria is 50 zones which means each zone should have about 188 features (total number of features being 9419). The tool randomly picks an initial feature (seed) and starts aggregating the spatial neighbors until the number of features in the zone reaches 188. Then. the tool randomly picks another feature and continues the process. If there are features left as “islands” between two completed zones, it creates a 'spatial constraint' for the zones to be continuous. The tool aggregates these leftover features to the nearest zone. There are more than 188 features in a zone and because of this spatial constraint and the leftover island features. The tool is not able to find a perfect 50 zones solution. Like any other spatial optimization problem, it is not guaranteed to reach a perfect solution. The tool finds an optimized solution. Even if the number of zones is the only constraint provided in the tool, there is always a spatial constraint to make the zones continuous.

Steps to Reproduce

Bug ID: BUG-000137311

Software:

  • ArcGIS Pro

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