Statistical Analysis & Dissemination of Census Data
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Statistical Analysis and Dissemination of Census Data Outline
The Power of Maps
Dynamic Census Atlases
Overview & Examples
Digital Geographic Data for Dissemination
Overview & Example
Spatial Analysis Techniques
Introduction and Example
Overview & Cost and Benefits
Digital Data Dissemination Strategies and Users
Overview of Users
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Anyone or anything can be associated with a known location in the world
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
CHILE: HOUSING AND POPULATION CENSUS DISTRICTS 2002
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Tsunami Affected Areas in Gizo, Solomon Islands
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
The power of maps
Maps Maps Maps Maps Maps Maps
communicate a concept or an idea. are often meant to support textual information appeal to the viewer’s curiosity summarize large amounts of information concisely can be used for description, exploration, confirmation, tabulation encourage comparisons:
Between different areas on the same map: where are population densities highest? Between different maps: is child mortality higher in the districts of province A than in province B? same area: where and by how much do literacy rates for males and females differ in the districts? Between maps for different time periods: did fertility rates decline since the last census?
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Dynamic census atlases
Alternative to a static census atlas
Publishing of a digital map and database together with mapping software can allow users to produce custom maps of census indicators.
Normally includes digital boundary files at a lower resolution than the full census database to allow fast drawing and low disk usage
closely integrated attribute table should contain only a selected number of census indicators.
Densities and ratios that are appropriate for mapping should already be calculated.
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Dynamic census atlases
The data provider should therefore provide an easy-to-use package together with the boundaries and data.
The use of that package should require minimal training and experience.
The application should be “plug-and-play”—after installation, the user should immediately be able to produce maps
Drill-down options for different geographic selections
Interactive area delineation options (e.g. select schools in a district)
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
A screenshot of Ukraine’s dynamics census atlas
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques the main use of spatial analysis is for census products and services Techniques include: buffering, linear interpolation, point pattern analysis, and cartograms, etc. All offer functionality beyond standard thematic (choropleth) mapping, with many tools now available in both commercial and open-source software programs.
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques Some prevalent forms of spatial analysis especially useful for use with population data include:
Queries Distance measurements Transformations
Buffering point-in-polygon analysis Polygon overlay analysis
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques
Queries:
Often this is the first step in an analysis, where one seeks to create a subset of units such as populated places with certain characteristics, allowing the user to check how typical an observation is against other observations
They use a GIS program to answer simple questions posed by the user, with no changes in the database and no new data produced.
An example of a query using geocoded census data is, select all towns with a population greater than 1,000 persons. These towns can then have their attributes summarized, for instance, to measure their total fertility rates against smaller towns and villages, then map the results
The term exploratory data analysis refers to investigations of patterns and trends in data using such techniques as querying
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Area delineation
E.g. Interactive determination of school districts with the same number of children in each school grade by aggregating census dissemination areas
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques Distance measurements
Easily done with all GIS programs, using the centroids (or center points) of cities, towns, and villages.
An analysis can be done to select villages located more than a kilometer from a school, clinic, or water source.
These can then be further analyzed using the attribute information for the populated places themselves.
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques Transformations
Methods of spatial analysis that use simple geometric, arithmetic or logical rules to create new datasets
Transformations can include operations that convert raster into vector data, or a stream of GPS coordinates into a route or a boundary
Of all the transformational techniques, buffering is the most well known and important
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques Buffering (transformation)
Involves building a new data layer by identifying all areas that are within a certain specified distance of the original.
Buffering can be performed on points, lines and polygons and can be weighted by attribute values.
Buffering can be used to model travel time, for instance, by creating a “catchment area” around a particular feature such as a school or a clinic.
This provides a measure of accessibility that can be mapped across the extent of a country.
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
“is near to”: Buffer Operations •
Point buffer •
Affected area around a Hospital
•
Catchment area of a water source
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Buffer Operations
•
Line buffer •
How many people live near the polluted river?
•
What is the area impacted by highway noise?
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Buffer Operations •
Polygon buffer •
Area around a reservoir where development should not be permitted
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques point-in-polygon analysis
Determines whether a point lies inside or outside a polygon. Can be used to compare geocoded village centroids lying inside and outside hazardous areas such as tropical storm tracks or earthquake zones.
Polygon overlay analysis
Involves comparison between the locations of two different polygonal data layers. For example, the boundaries of two administrative districts could be compared to troubleshoot errors in the field enumeration process
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques
Spatial interpolation
A spatial analysis method designed to fill in values that lie between observations
A variety of methods including inverse-distance weighting and kriging are used to estimate the values of unsampled sites
based on Tobler’s first law that all nearby objects are more similar than distant objects
Kriging: interpolation technique for obtaining statistically unbiased estimates of spatial variation of known points such as surface elevations or yield measurements utilizing a set of control points
In kriging, the general properties of a surface are modeled to estimate the missing parts of the surface
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Example of linear interpolation creating contours
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques
Thiessen polygons
Have the unique property that each polygon contains only one input point (e.g. settlements), and any location within a polygon is closer to its associated point than to the point of any other polygon.
This method assumes that the values of the unsampled data are equivalent to those of the sampled points.
Thiessen polygons illustrated
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Areas of influence
Commuting distances: daily commuters flow
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques
Descriptive summaries are a spatial equivalent of descriptive statistics (such as mean and standard deviation) that represent the essence of a dataset in 1 or 2 numbers
Centers of population are the two-dimensional equivalent of a statistical mean and are often used to display the center of population using the weighted average of x and y coordinates of populated points
Point pattern or cluster analysis regards the distribution of points in space irrespective of their actual locations to determine whether patterns are random, clustered, or dispersed
hot spots are where high values are surrounded by high values, or cold spots, where low values are surrounded by low values. These are particularly useful for identifying populations at risk as well.
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Spatial Analysis Techniques Cartograms
sometimes used to display census results
The areas of the original polygons are expanded or contracted based on their attribute values such as population size or voting habits
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Modelling: smoothing
Evolution of the population beetwen two censuses
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Digital Geographic Data for Dissemination
Demand for digital databases that consist of extractions of the census agency’s digital geographic master database will only increase Census data are an important input in policy planning and academic analysis in many fields.
Health service provision, educational resource allocation, design of utilities and infrastructure, and electoral planning are some applications where government agencies require spatially referenced small area population statistics.
Commercial users employ such data for marketing applications and location decisions.
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Digital Geographic Data for Dissemination Benefits and costs
Benefits: Unsurpassed detail and precision, the potential use of census data in numerous applications--especially when overlaid on other geographic data such as terrain, and the relative ease of management and storage of thousands of units
Costs: expense in processing and data management, possible data disclosure issues, and quality control;costs of metadata production should be factored into the equation as well
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Digital Data Dissemination Strategies and Users The wide range of potential users of disaggregated census data means that the NSO needs to pursue a multi-leveled digital data dissemination strategy. Broadly, we can distinguish between the following types of users: Advanced GIS users Computer literate users Novice users
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Digital Data Dissemination Strategies and Users
Advanced GIS users
work easily with large datasets and can use ftp to access them
Require extensive metadata. Sometimes called data extractors or “power users”
They will want access to spatial and attribute information in a comprehensive digital geographic format
The census office needs to supply comprehensive documentation on the geographic parameters used for the geographic database as well as on the individual census variables
The spatial information will be distributed in an open geographic format that can be easily converted into any number of commercial GIS formats
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Digital Data Dissemination Strategies and Users
Computer literate users
Government, commercial or private sector users who want to be able to browse the thematic information in a census database spatially.
Want to produce thematic maps and thus need to be able to perform simple manipulation of cartographic parameters.
Simple analytical functions such as aggregation of census units to customdesigned regions should also be possible.
This group of users is best served with a comprehensive, pre-packaged application that is designed for a commercial or freely available desktop mapping package.
Documentation requirements are somewhat smaller, since the users are unlikely to change the geographic parameters of the database or perform more advanced GIS operations.
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
Digital Data Dissemination Strategies and Users
Novice users
Largely want to view pre-prepared maps on a computer and perhaps perform some basic queries
Best data distribution strategy is often to produce a self-contained digital census atlas
This atlas could consists of a series of static map images, for example, in the form of a slide show
Or it could be a very simple mapping interface with pre-designed map views that allow basic queries
Both, static maps and a simple map interface, can be made accessible through the Internet
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
GRACIAS POR SU ATENCIÓN
UNSD-CELADE Regional Workshop on Census Cartography for the 2010 Latin America’s census round
