An overview of the zonal tools

The Zonal tools allow you to perform analysis where the output is a result of computations performed on all cells that belong to each input zone. A zone can be defined as being one single area of a particular value, but it can also be composed of multiple disconnected elements, or regions, all having the same value. Zones can be defined by raster or feature datasets. Rasters must be of integer type, and features must have an integer or string attribute field.

Some zonal tools quantify certain properties of the geometry, or shape, of the zone input and do not require any other inputs. Other zonal tools use the zone input to define the locations for which other parameters will be calculated, such as statistics, areas, or value frequencies. There is also a zonal tool that is used to fill specified zones with the minimum value found along the zone boundary.

The applicatons for zonal tools are divided into the following categories:

Zonal tool application category	Tool(s)
Tools that work on zone shapes.	Zonal Geometry Zonal Geometry As Table
Tools that work on zone attributes.	Zonal Statistics Zonal Statistics as Table
Tools that determine the area of classes within zones.	Tabulate Area
Tools that determine the frequency distribution of values of one input raster within zones of another.	Zonal Histogram
Tools that fill specified zones.	Zonal Fill

The following table lists the available tools in the Zonal toolset and provides a brief description of each:

Tool	Description
Tabulate Area	Calculates cross-tabulated areas between two datasets and outputs a table.
Zonal Fill	Fills zones using the minimum cell value from a weight raster along the zone boundary.
Zonal Geometry	Calculates for each zone in a dataset the specified geometry measure (area, perimeter, thickness, or the characteristics of ellipse).
Zonal Geometry As Table	Calculates for each zone in a dataset the geometry measures (area, perimeter, thickness, and the characteristics of ellipse) and reports the results as a table.
Zonal Histogram	Creates a table and a histogram graph that show the frequency distribution of cell values on the Value input for each unique Zone.
Zonal Statistics	Calculates statistics on values of a raster within the zones of another dataset.
Zonal Statistics as Table	Summarizes the values of a raster within the zones of another dataset and reports the results to a table.

Tools of the Zonal toolset