Development and Design of a Web-Based Interface to Address Geographical Incompatibility in Spatial Units

Abstract

The issue of how to address geographical incompatibility between aggregate statistical data sources is one affecting researchers in many countries. The increased amount of data from recent British Population Censuses has been accompanied by considerable changes in both administrative and electoral boundaries as well as those of areas specifically defined for census data collection and statistical output purposes. This paper reviews the extent of geographical inconsistency at different spatial scales and outlines the development of a web-based interface that implements an intelligent areal interpolation (dasymetric mapping) algorithm that enables estimates of census counts to be obtained for consistent spatial units across pairs of recent British censuses (1981, 1991, and 2001). A limited-access user trial has been carried out and the paper illustrates a typical user query that seeks to estimate 1981 population counts in 1991 enumeration district boundaries. The paper concludes by considering further development of the interface, its incorporation into the services provided by existing census data units in the UK, and its wider potential for addressing the issues of geographical incompatibility.