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

科罗拉多大学博尔德分校地理系的芭芭拉·布登菲尔德教授和田纳西大学地理系的尼古拉斯·内格尔教授将开发一种方法，将公共使用的人口普查微数据以比目前公共领域更精细的分辨率放置在太空中。他们将使用的方法是计算一组样本权重（概率），这些权重（概率）将微数据记录分配到人口普查区，并添加辅助数据，甚至分配到子区域级别。这些样本权重尊重可公开获得的人口普查区统计数据，以及人口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的统计方法推导出来的，并且允许量化不确定性和小区域人口的模拟，从而提供了比现有方法的重大进步。虽然该方法完全依赖于公开可用的数据，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。本研究的成果包括方法、工具和使用指南，可以有效地构建样本权重。讲习班将向城市地理学家、土地利用规划者、交通专家、人口统计学家和教育工作者提供这些工具。一个网站将以Matlab、Python和R脚本的形式传播这些方法，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的一个州）的规划讲习班以及地理、城市规划和统计全国大会的讲习班进行评价。该项目将向美国人口普查局提供具体建议，以便他们可以提高公共数据在小区域研究、估计和政策分析中的相关性。

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.