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What are PeopleAreas? |
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PeopleAreas are relatively uniform
circular geographic areas optimized to encompass the largest number of people in the
fewest number of areas. |
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PeopleAreas are primarily intended to provide an analysis framework for
translating and simplifying large and often unwieldy amounts of available data into a
useable planning resource. This basic PeopleArea principle insures that analysis revolves
around population centers. More traditional geographic units are not able to accomplish
this. AREA |
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Every geographic unit is designed to meet a particular need. This need is
translated into a design model that determines how a geography will be formed. Typically,
the design model will hold constant one of two variables: population or uniform geography.
In other words, either a population threshold will be constant and the size of geography
varies or the size of geography is constant and the population within it varies. |
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Population Units |
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Population based geographic units seek to create geographies with roughly the
same number of people. Since the size of the population is constant, the size of the
geography varies. Traditional examples of population driven geographies include: |
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While such geographies work well for congressional districting and postal
delivery strategies, their inconsistent size complicates planning efforts. It is very
difficult to compare one geography to another when they differ in geographic size. For
example, two census tracts may each contain 4,000 people. But one may encompass four city
blocks and a second hundreds of square miles. Furthermore, the second further complicates
planning questions because how the population is distributed across the census tract is
critical. Are the people generally concentrated in a corner? Or are they distributed
relatively evenly across the tract? |
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Uniform Geography |
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It is the problem of incomparability between population based geographic units
that occasions the need for uniform geographic units. Generally, such uniform geographic
units must be custom created. Such geographies are based upon a uniform geographic area
regardless of the number of people within them. One common implementation of this is
geographic grids. |
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Geographic grids are created by dividing a designated area into uniform sized
grids. The size of the grid unit varies based upon need. The problem of population based
geographies is solved since it now allows two geographies to be compared. The constant is
the size. The variable is the particular population configuration. |
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But there are problems with grids as well. They are completely blind to
communities. As a result, a grid analysis may divide what is really a population center
based upon no logic other than size of the grid specifications. The actual center of a
population is immaterial to grid analysis. |
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The Best of Both Worlds: PopNet Technology |
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An ideal geographic unit would capture the best of population driven
geographies (i.e. where the people reside) and the comparability of uniform grid
geographies (i.e. where the geographic unit is uniform). This is what PERCEPT'S PopNet
Technology does when it creates PeopleAreas. |
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The PeopleArea Advantage: A Custom Unit of Geography for Mission Planning |
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Optimally placed based upon location of population |
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Uniform in size for comparative analysis and modeling |
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Encompass an area more consistent
with ministry planning needs |
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Adaptable over time to reflect population changes |
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=>Click here to
see a sample image of a full InfoMap |
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NEXT PAGE
- How PeopleAreas Are Created. . . |
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