Spatial join 2 polygon Feature Collections and count number of times they intersect

Question

I have 2 ee.FeatureCollections in GEE. The first is a square grid polygon layer. The second is a polygon layer made up of multiple irregular rectangles that overlap with one another. I want to count the number of times each grid square intersects with the rectangles and export this result as a Shapefile. I am used to performing spatial joins in QGIS, ArcGIS and R but would like to do it in GEE. However, I am facing some problems related to understanding the function of several code segments.

Here is a graphic demonstrating what I intend to achieve.

I was trying to work this out by following closely with the GEE tutorial on Spatial Joins but I am running into some errors which I am unsure how to solve. Primarily, I am unsure what to define in the code lines 31 (on 'matchesKey') and 44 (on 'grid.get') as I haven't yet understood their functions. After several failed attempts, I am wondering if I should be using another approach instead, for e.g. via ee.Geometry.Polygon.intersection().

Here is the link to my code (with the assets shared publicly) and the code appended in this thread too.

/*
Purpose of script:

For each grid square, count the number of times it intersects with another Feature Collection,
and return the count value as a new property

*/

//  Load square grid layer
var grid = ee.FeatureCollection('users/jjohanness1992/SpatialJoin/grid');
print('1st grid square',grid.first());

//  Load polygon layer
var rectangles = ee.FeatureCollection('users/jjohanness1992/SpatialJoin/rectangles');
print('1st rectangle',rectangles.first());

//  Inspect in map
Map.addLayer(grid,{},'grid');
Map.addLayer(rectangles,{},'rectangles');
Map.centerObject(rectangles,15);

//  Define spatial filter that controls the intersection of geometries
var spatialFilter = ee.Filter.intersects({
  leftField: '.geo',
  rightField: '.geo',
  maxError: 0.01
});

//  Define a save all join
var saveAllJoin = ee.Join.saveAll({
    matchesKey: 'id', // I'm not sure what I should put here in matchesKey: 'XXX'
});
// **********
/* Here I get the following error message:
Error: Invalid property type: Property id has type List<Object>. (Error code: 3)
*/
// **********

//  Apply the join
var intersectJoined = saveAllJoin.apply(grid, rectangles, spatialFilter);

//  Count number of firepix in a grid and set as a property
intersectJoined = intersectJoined.map(function(grid) {
  var nRectangles = ee.List(grid.get('id')).size(); // I'm not sure what to put in grid.get('XXX')
  return grid.set('nCount',nRectangles);
});


//  Export
Export.table.toDrive({
  collection: intersectJoined,
  description:'intersectJoined',
  folder: '00_pilot',
  fileFormat: 'SHP'
});

Answer 1

You didn't say the reason of your affirmation related to "after several failed attempts". So, I supossed that it was in the impossibility of exporting intersectJoined Feature Collection as shapefile. This collection has the unusual field (Property) id whose content is a List type Object; producing an error code 3 when it is trying to export as shapefile.

This error can be avoided removing that Property. By using the answer in this question, I modified your code as follows (link here):

/*
Purpose of script:

For each grid square, count the number of times it intersects with another Feature Collection,
and return the count value as a new property

*/

//  Load square grid layer
var grid = ee.FeatureCollection('users/jjohanness1992/SpatialJoin/grid');
//print('1st grid square',grid.first());

//  Load polygon layer
var rectangles = ee.FeatureCollection('users/jjohanness1992/SpatialJoin/rectangles');
//print('1st rectangle',rectangles.first());

//  Inspect in map
//Map.addLayer(grid,{},'grid');
//Map.addLayer(rectangles,{},'rectangles');
Map.centerObject(rectangles,15);

//  Define spatial filter that controls the intersection of geometries
var spatialFilter = ee.Filter.intersects({
  leftField: '.geo',
  rightField: '.geo',
  maxError: 0.01
});

//  Define a save all join
var saveAllJoin = ee.Join.saveAll({
    matchesKey: 'id', // I'm not sure what I should put here in matchesKey: 'XXX'
});
// **********
/* Here I get the following error message:
Error: Invalid property type: Property id has type List<Object>. (Error code: 3)
*/
// **********

//  Apply the join
var intersectJoined = saveAllJoin.apply(grid, rectangles, spatialFilter);

//  Count number of firepix in a grid and set as a property
intersectJoined = intersectJoined.map(function(grid) {
  var nRectangles = ee.List(grid.get('id')).size(); // I'm not sure what to put in grid.get('XXX')
  return grid.set('nCount',nRectangles);
});

print("intersectJoined", intersectJoined.limit(10));

// Generic Function to remove a property from a feature
var removeProperty = function(feat, property) {
  var properties = feat.propertyNames();
  var selectProperties = properties.filter(ee.Filter.neq('item', property));
  return feat.select(selectProperties);
};

// remove property id in each feature
var intersectJoined = intersectJoined.map(function(feat) {
  return removeProperty(feat, 'id');
});

print(intersectJoined.limit(10));


//  Export
Export.table.toDrive({
  collection: intersectJoined,
  description:'intersectJoined',
  folder: '00_pilot',
  fileFormat: 'SHP'
});

After running above code and its associated task in GEE code editor, I got the shapefile without any error. I downloaded it to my disk drive and it looks as follows in QGIS. It has 82,834 records in its attributes table with nCount between 1 and 38. I hope this helps.