Introduction to raster operations

What are raster operations?

A raster operation, also known as a task or geoprocessing operation, is a web service endpoint designed to work with raster data. Raster operations allow you to run a specific analytical process on a raster dataset like classification, change detection, terrain analysis, spatial interpolation and more. Performing a raster operation results in the creation of a new raster dataset.

You can use raster operations to:

• Classify pixels into categories, such as land cover types or water features.
• Compare raster datasets from different time intervals to detect, identify and quantify change, such as urban sprawl or vegetation loss.
• Calculate terrain attributes like aspect, slope or hillshade.
• Create elevation models to predict variables such as temperture or precipitation.
• Predict habitat suitablity for conservation planning or wildlife management.
• Predict flood risk for emergency response planing, floodplain management and infrustructure development.
• Assess and manage natural resources like forests, water bodies and agricultural land.

What raster operations are available?

The raster analysis service contains a number of operations that you can access and use in your applications. These operations are grouped by category by the type of analysis they perform:

• Analyze patterns
• Summarize data
• Analyze proximity
• Terrain analysis
• Data management

For a list of all the raster operations supported by the raster analysis service, go to Types of raster operations

How to get the raster analysis URL

The URL for the raster analysis service can be obtained by making a /self call to your portal.

The general steps for executing a /self call and obtaining your raster analysis URL are:

1. Get an Access Token.
2. Make the request.
3. Get the value of the rasterAnalytics key from the results to get the URL value.

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https://arcgis.com/sharing/rest/self?f=json&token={{ACCESS_TOKEN}}

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"rasterAnalytics": {
    "url": "https://rasteranalysis3.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/RasterAnalysisTools/GPServer"
},

How to perform a raster operation request

The general steps to perform an analysis with a raster operation are:

1. Get your raster analysis service URL.
2. Identify the operation you would like to perform.
3. Provide the input parameter values.
4. Make the request.
5. Handle the results.