results from analysis applied to all cells within the zone Zonal Operations in ArcGIS neighborhood is the same for every cell throughout entire raster zone geometry is not fixed; each can be a different size/shape analysis is performed as a “moving window” – series of overlapping neighborhoods analysis is performed within the fixed zones – no overlap between zones analysis performed based on some pre-defined area all of the same statistical methods (mean, median, SD, mode, range, max, min, sum, majority, minority, variety)