I wish to label overlapping polygons so that I can manually locate each overlap then review the attributes of each overlapping polygon and decide which suite of attributes to maintain before dissolving the polygons to ensure a dataset free of overlap. I know the manual review is time consuming but I cannot see another way of doing this if you don't know which attributes should be maintained before looking at the overlapping polygons.
I wish to be able to calculate the relational area of specific attributes within the dataset without biasing the analysis due to overlap. Ideally I would like a way to add a field that added a code (e.g. number) that would link each polygon with other polygons that it either entirely or partially overlaps with. Then I can determine which of these polygon's attributes to retain.
I have very large datasets with numerous different attributes. I use Arc10 with win7 64 bit processor and ArcInfo licence. Any ideas and help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Best Answer
I think Intersect will enable you to quickly identify the overlaps and give you an attribute table that you can use to zoom from one overlap polygon to the next.
"Intersect can run with a single input. In this case, instead of discovering intersections between the features from the different feature classes or layers, it will discover the intersections between features within the single input. This can be useful to discover polygon overlap and line intersections (as points or lines)."