A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia

Enumeration areas are the operational geographic units for the collection, dissemination, and analysis of census data and are often used as a national sampling frame for various types of surveys. Traditionally, enumeration areas are created by manu...

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Main Authors: Qader, Sarchil, Lefebvre, Veronique, Ninneman, Amy, Himelein, Kristen, Pape, Utz, Bengtsson, Linus, Tatem, Andy, Bird, Tomas
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/810771565268760366/A-Novel-Approach-to-the-Automatic-Designation-of-Predefined-Census-Enumeration-Areas-and-Population-Sampling-Frames-A-Case-Study-in-Somalia
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32224
id okr-10986-32224
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-322242022-09-19T12:16:45Z A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia Qader, Sarchil Lefebvre, Veronique Ninneman, Amy Himelein, Kristen Pape, Utz Bengtsson, Linus Tatem, Andy Bird, Tomas SAMPLING FRAME DEMOGRAPHICS CENSUS DATA ENUMERATION AREA POPULATION DENSITY REMOTE SENSING Enumeration areas are the operational geographic units for the collection, dissemination, and analysis of census data and are often used as a national sampling frame for various types of surveys. Traditionally, enumeration areas are created by manually digitizing small geographic units on high-resolution satellite imagery or physically walking the boundaries of units, both of which are highly time, cost, and labor intensive. In addition, creating enumeration areas requires considering the size of the population and area within each unit. This is an optimization problem that can best be solved by a computer. This paper, for the first time, produces an automatic designation of predefined census enumeration areas based on high-resolution gridded population and settlement data sets and using publicly available natural and administrative boundaries. This automated approach is compared with manually digitized enumeration areas that were created in urban areas in Mogadishu and Hargeisa for the United Nations Population Estimation Survey for Somalia in 2014. The automatically generated enumeration areas are consistent with standard enumeration areas, including having identifiable boundaries to field teams on the ground, and appropriate sizing and population for coverage by an enumerator. Furthermore, the automated urban enumeration areas have no gaps. The paper extends this work to rural Somalia, for which no records exist of previous enumeration area demarcations. This work shows the time, labor, and cost-saving value of automated enumeration area delineation and points to the potential for broadly available tools that are suitable for low-income and data-poor settings but applicable to potentially wider contexts. 2019-08-08T18:46:17Z 2019-08-08T18:46:17Z 2019-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/810771565268760366/A-Novel-Approach-to-the-Automatic-Designation-of-Predefined-Census-Enumeration-Areas-and-Population-Sampling-Frames-A-Case-Study-in-Somalia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32224 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8972 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Somalia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic SAMPLING FRAME
DEMOGRAPHICS
CENSUS DATA
ENUMERATION AREA
POPULATION DENSITY
REMOTE SENSING
spellingShingle SAMPLING FRAME
DEMOGRAPHICS
CENSUS DATA
ENUMERATION AREA
POPULATION DENSITY
REMOTE SENSING
Qader, Sarchil
Lefebvre, Veronique
Ninneman, Amy
Himelein, Kristen
Pape, Utz
Bengtsson, Linus
Tatem, Andy
Bird, Tomas
A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia
geographic_facet Africa
Somalia
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8972
description Enumeration areas are the operational geographic units for the collection, dissemination, and analysis of census data and are often used as a national sampling frame for various types of surveys. Traditionally, enumeration areas are created by manually digitizing small geographic units on high-resolution satellite imagery or physically walking the boundaries of units, both of which are highly time, cost, and labor intensive. In addition, creating enumeration areas requires considering the size of the population and area within each unit. This is an optimization problem that can best be solved by a computer. This paper, for the first time, produces an automatic designation of predefined census enumeration areas based on high-resolution gridded population and settlement data sets and using publicly available natural and administrative boundaries. This automated approach is compared with manually digitized enumeration areas that were created in urban areas in Mogadishu and Hargeisa for the United Nations Population Estimation Survey for Somalia in 2014. The automatically generated enumeration areas are consistent with standard enumeration areas, including having identifiable boundaries to field teams on the ground, and appropriate sizing and population for coverage by an enumerator. Furthermore, the automated urban enumeration areas have no gaps. The paper extends this work to rural Somalia, for which no records exist of previous enumeration area demarcations. This work shows the time, labor, and cost-saving value of automated enumeration area delineation and points to the potential for broadly available tools that are suitable for low-income and data-poor settings but applicable to potentially wider contexts.
format Working Paper
author Qader, Sarchil
Lefebvre, Veronique
Ninneman, Amy
Himelein, Kristen
Pape, Utz
Bengtsson, Linus
Tatem, Andy
Bird, Tomas
author_facet Qader, Sarchil
Lefebvre, Veronique
Ninneman, Amy
Himelein, Kristen
Pape, Utz
Bengtsson, Linus
Tatem, Andy
Bird, Tomas
author_sort Qader, Sarchil
title A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia
title_short A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia
title_full A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia
title_fullStr A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia
title_full_unstemmed A Novel Approach to the Automatic Designation of Predefined Census Enumeration Areas and Population Sampling Frames : A Case Study in Somalia
title_sort novel approach to the automatic designation of predefined census enumeration areas and population sampling frames : a case study in somalia
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/810771565268760366/A-Novel-Approach-to-the-Automatic-Designation-of-Predefined-Census-Enumeration-Areas-and-Population-Sampling-Frames-A-Case-Study-in-Somalia
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32224
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