How to perform geometry analysis
The most common approach to perform a geometry analysis is to use a client-side API to create a geometry (point, multipoint, polyline, polygon and others) and then execute one or more geometry operations to solve a problem. When you use two or more operations for geometry analysis, this is known as chaining. For example, you can buffer a point, then calculate the area of the result, and then determine if a line intersects the buffer.
Geometry data is typically created through user interaction or by accessing features in a hosted feature layer. When the operations are complete, the results are typically displayed in a map or used as input for other analyses.
Steps
The general steps to perform a geometry analysis are:
- Determine the geometry operation(s) required to solve the problem.
- Create one or more geometries with the same spatial reference.
- Execute the geometry operations.
- Display the results in a map or use as input for another analysis.
Example
Buffer, calculate area, and intersect
This example shows how to chain together a number of geometry operations to perform a geometry analysis. It creates a point and then buffers the point, calculates the area, and then determines if the area (polygon) intersects a line.
A real-world example of this might be to determine the potential flood area (buffer) that will affect a road and if the road will intersect the flood area.
Tutorials

Find spatial relationships
Determine the spatial relationship between two geometries.

Calculate geometries
Perform buffer, intersect, union, and other geometric operations.

Find length and area
Get the length of a line and the area of a polygon.

Display projected geometries
Project geometries to a new spatial reference in a map.
Services
Spatial analysis service
Process spatial datasets to discover relationships and patterns.
API support
Spatial relationship | Geometric calculation | Length and area | Projection | |
---|---|---|---|---|
ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript | ||||
ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET | ||||
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Kotlin | ||||
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Swift | ||||
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Java | ||||
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt | ||||
ArcGIS API for Python | ||||
ArcGIS REST JS | ||||
Esri Leaflet | ||||
MapBox GL JS | ||||
OpenLayers |