Collaborative Research: Putting People in Their Place: Constructing a Geography for Census Microdata

科罗拉多大学博尔德大学地理系的Barbara Buttenfield教授和田纳西大学地理系的Nicholas Nagle教授将开发在空间中以比目前公共领域可用的更精细的分辨率使用人口普查微观数据的方法。他们将使用的方法是推算一组样本权重(概率)，这些样本权重(概率)将微数据记录分配给人口普查区域，并增加辅助数据，甚至分配到分区域级别。这些样本权重尊重可公开获得的普查区域统计数据，以及普查数据与辅助土地利用和土地覆盖之间的相关性。重要的是，该方法是使用经验似然性的统计方法得出的，并允许量化不确定性和对小区域人口的模拟，从而提供了比现有方法显著的进步。虽然该方法完全依赖于可公开获得的数据，但验证将利用人口普查研究数据中心保存的机密人口普查记录。这项研究的成果包括允许有效构建样本权重的方法、工具和使用指南。讲习班将向城市地理学家、土地利用规划者、交通专家、人口学家和教育工作者提供这些工具。一个网站将传播这些方法作为对网络基础设施的贡献，作为对网络基础设施的贡献，以便其他人可以使用这些工具。该网站将通过科罗拉多大学为期三周的短期课程、田纳西州(EPSCoR州)的规划讲习班以及地理、城市规划和统计国家大会的讲习班进行评估。该项目将向美国人口普查局提供具体的建议，以便他们可以改善公共数据对小范围研究、估计和政策分析的相关性。

Professor Barbara Buttenfield in the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder and Nicholas Nagle in the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee will develop methods that situate public use census microdata in space at finer resolutions than are currently available in the public domain. The methods they will use impute a set of sample weights (probabilities) that allocate microdata records to census tracts with the addition of ancillary data, even to sub-tract levels. These sample weights respect publicly available census tract statistics, as well as correlations between census data and ancillary landuse and land cover. Importantly, the methodology is derived using statistical methods of empirical likelihood, and allows for quantification of uncertainty and simulations of small area populations, thus offering a significant advance over existing methodologies. While the method depends entirely on publicly available data, validation will utilize confidential census records held at the Census Research Data Centers. Deliverables from this research include methods, tools and usage guidelines that allow efficient construction of sample weights. Workshops will make these tools available to urban geographers, landuse planners, transportation specialists, demographers and educators. A website will disseminate the methods as Matlab, Python and R scripts, as a contribution to cyberinfrastructure, so that others may utilize tools. This website will be evaluated through a three-week short-course at the University of Colorado, by a planning workshop at Tennessee (an EPSCOR state) as well as by workshops at geography, urban planning and statistics national conventions. The project will provide specific recommendations to the US Census Bureau so that they may improve the relevance of public data for small area research, estimation and policy analysis.