GIS Clipping and Summarization Toolbox

Geographic Information System (GIS) analyses are an essential part of natural resource management and research. Calculating and summarizing data within intersecting GIS layers is common practice for analysts and researchers. However, the various tools and steps required to complete this process are slow and tedious, requiring many tools iterating over hundreds, or even thousands of datasets. USGS scientists will combine a series of ArcGIS geoprocessing capabilities with custom scripts to create tools that will calculate, summarize, and organize large amounts of data that can span many temporal and spatial scales with minimal user input. The tools work with polygons, lines, points, and rasters to calculate relevant summary data and combine them into a single output table that can be easily incorporated into statistical analyses. These tools are useful for anyone interested in using an automated script to quickly compile summary information within all areas of interest in a GIS dataset.