GIS Tips & Tricks Slivers be Gone!

Abstract

One of the most annoying aspects of building large polygon datasets by heads-up digitizing occurs when there are small overlaps and/or gaps where the polygons meet. Edge-matching to eliminate slivers between digitized polygons can be a laborious and tedious task. These "slivers", especially voids, can be very difficult to detect by visual means, so the GIS workflow to resolve these issues generally involves building topology, constructing a ruleset, and running advanced GIS tools; a heady operation for a beginning GIS analyst and particularly cumbersome when tracking a few slivers. This month's GIS Tip demonstrates a quick and effective workflow to avoid the build topology route.