Which GIS function creates a new feature from the overlapping area of multiple inputs?

The function that creates a new feature from the overlapping area of multiple inputs is the intersect function. This process essentially identifies the area where features from two or more datasets overlap, creating new features that are comprised only of those overlapping sections.

For example, if you have two polygons representing land use categories and you use the intersect function, the result will be a new polygon that only includes the regions where both land uses occur together. This is particularly useful in analyses that require understanding how different geographical features or phenomena interact in a defined space.

In contrast, merging combines features from multiple layers into a single layer, while clipping extracts features based on the shape of another feature but does not focus on the overlaps. Erasing removes portions of one feature based on the boundaries of another but, like clipping, does not create a new feature based on the overlapping area. Thus, intersect specifically leads to the generation of new features that represent the shared spatial characteristics of the input layers.