The generation of socioeconomic surfaces for public policymaking.

Abstract

The development is explained of a technique to generate 'modeled' surfaces of census-type socioeconomic survey data that offer the potential to overcome many of the problems inherent in the analysis and presentation of such data in conventional area-based form. Potential benefits of the modeled surfaces include a level of resolution that arguably can provide a more finely focused spatial basis for the generation of a wide range of spatial indicators that can aid public policy making. This type of application requires that the method is set within a flexibly managed information framework and includes suitable tests for the reliability of the generated surfaces.