What additional action must be taken to use the Summarize Within tool effectively?

To use the Summarize Within tool effectively, it is essential to overlay a polygon layer with another layer. This tool is designed to summarize the attributes of point features or line features that fall within specified polygon boundaries. Therefore, having a polygon layer to define the area of interest is a critical prerequisite for the tool to function properly.

By overlaying a polygon layer, the tool can perform spatial analysis to calculate statistics (like counts or sums) of the points or line features contained within those polygons. This is vital for tasks such as understanding data distribution and density within geographical boundaries.

Inputting only point features, applying specific attribute filters, or manually establishing spatial relationships would not ensure that the correct polygon boundaries are defined, nor would they provide the necessary context for understanding the spatial relationships within the data being analyzed. Hence, the effective application of the Summarize Within tool hinges on the correct use of polygon layers.