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Add a heat map

When a layer contains a large number of point features, showing each feature individually on the map is often not useful. In this scenario, point features often overlap, making it difficult to distinguish between features. Even when they do not overlap, it is usually difficult or impossible to visually extract meaningful information when hundreds or thousands of points are shown all at once.

No heat map

One approach to resolving this issue is to create a heat map. A heat map represents the geographic density of point features on a map by using colored areas to represent those points. The areas will be largest where the most points are concentrated together.

Heat map

Note:

Heat map layers and layers that are clustered cannot be shared to ArcGIS as a layer, but can be shared as part of a map. In the ArcGIS.com Map Viewer, the heat map layer displays as a point layer instead of rendering as a heat map.

  1. Press the Show map contents button to display the Contents pane.
  2. On the Contents pane, press the arrow to the right of the point layer for which you want to configure a heat map.
  3. Press Add heat map to create a heat map of your layer.
    Note:

    The Heat map item will be disabled if Clustering is turned on. You must first turn off clustering before applying and configuring a heat map.

    A new heat map layer appears in the Contents pane. The map automatically displays the heat map under the original points layer.

    Note:

    To turn off the heat map, check the check box beside the heat map layer in the Contents pane. See Toggle a layer's visibility for more information.

  4. To change the way the heat map appears on the map, from the Contents pane, press the arrow to the right of the heat map layer and press Configure heat map.
  5. Do any of the following to configure the heat map:
    • Choose a color scheme from the Color scheme menu.
    • Adjust the intensity of the heat map using the Intensity slider.

    The map automatically updates to reflect the new heat map settings.

  6. Press OK when you are finished.
    Note:

    You can also set the visible range and the transparency of the heat map layer, if desired.