I want to overlay two grids that show the degree of imperviousness for two different cities in order to see if I can identify any similarities in the spatial distribution. Is there any way to do that? Thanks in advance. I hope I was clear enough .
What are you using to represent impeviousness? Do you have a layer of impervious surfaces? Is this a raster or vector (polygon) file. All GIS will do similar things. If you have access to it, I recommend ArcGIS 10, If not QGIS is a good free alternative. The software's will do what you tell it to do. You just need to know what questions to ask in Google and there will be a forum or tutorial with steps. Are you trying to get a way to measure the surfaces, Area? Spatial arrangements ?
I have a vector file with the the built-up areas. I want to overlay the grid which shows the degree of imperviousness for a city X with the grid which shows the degree of imperviousness for a city Y in order to see if there are any spatial similiarities in what concerns the pattern of urban sprawl. I have acces to ArcGIS but I do not know how to do this, maybe I do not know what to search...
One option would be to load both (shape)files into arcgis.com and use a Compare Web Maps option. By using the slider one can do comparison of the two maps. See for example the map I created (though not eactly the same application as you are dealing with) that shows how a comparison can be made:
If you have vector polygon shape files for built areas X and Y you have to convert the shape files to grids where built up areas have value of 1 and non built up area have a value of 0. Assume that the grid which shows the degree of imperviousness (Im) has values from 1 to 3 then multiplying Grid X with Im give us another new grid (X_Im) do the same for Grid Y give us grid (Y_Im). In that case you can subtract the Grids X_Im and Y_Im areas with zero values are similar areas in degree of imperviousness.
I forgot to say that the above procedure assumes that both areas X and Y have the same geographic location.Otherwise, you have to compare X_Im and Y_Im using statistical procedures using the attributes in the table of each Grid.
Ahen by using "Symmetric Difference" the urabn areas found in one and not in the other can be selectively delineated, giving the urabn sprawl of the new time vintage compared to the old time vintagh.rcGIS is a good option. Provided the two images are georeferenced properly, one can perform different kinds of overlay and tsvasan01