Update standard geography trade areas in ArcGIS Pro

Summary

The recently released 2022 U.S. Business Analyst dataset is built using the updated Census 2020 administrative boundaries. These new boundaries have changed significantly at all levels, in all areas of the country, from those in Business Analyst datasets prior to 2022. Geography levels such as Counties or Block Groups, may have gained or lost area, been split into multiple polygons with new IDs, or been removed all together.

This blog from Garry Burgess provides background information on the challenges introduced by these boundary changes.

Care must be taken to ensure that your standard geography trade areas are built from the 2022 Business Analyst dataset, prior to setting it as your Business Analyst data source. You can return invalid results with the Business Analyst 2022 dataset if your standard geography trade areas were created with a previous vintage of Business Analyst data. Conversely, your 2022 standard geography trade areas should not be used for analysis with the 2021 Business Analyst dataset due to the same geometry discrepancy caused by boundary changes.

You can easily recreate your standard geography trade areas using the Generate Standard Geography Trade Areas tool.

Note: 
The 2022 Business Analyst dataset has only been released online. The installed version of the 2022 dataset releases in late summer of 2022. The installed dataset will not contain access to the 2021 Business Analyst dataset. However, you can retain access to the dataset by keeping it installed.

Procedure

To update standard geography trade areas, follow these steps.
Set the Business Analyst data source

1. Open ArcGIS Pro, click Analysis in the ribbon, and click the Business Analysis button to extend the drop-down menu.
2. Click Change Data Source under Business Analyst Data Source near the bottom of the window. Select the Business Analyst dataset that you plan to work with, in this case, Online: US 2022, and click OK.

Run the Generate Standard Geography Trade Areas tool

1. In the Trade Areas toolbox in the Business Analyst toolset, click the Generate Standard Geography Trade Areas tool.
2. Extend the Geography Levels drop-down menu and select a level, such as ZIP Codes, that will be used to create the output feature class.
3. Select an input type:
   • List: Type a list of geography IDs, separated by commas, in the Geography IDs List parameter text box.
   • Table: Navigate to a table with a list of geography IDs that define your trade area. Selecting Table presents additional contextual parameters in the tool:
     1. Click the folder icon next to Geography IDs Table parameter, navigate to and select your table of geography IDs. Click OK.
     2. Select the Geography IDs from the table as the Geography Key Field parameter value.
4. Evaluate whether to use the optional parameters.
5. Click Run.

Consider adding the Business Analyst dataset year to the output feature class name for easy identification.

Updating standard geography trade areas when using the new 2022 dataset for analysis ensures that the data variable values returned match the updated geometry for each ID.