Mapping and Visualising Census Data Keith Cole Jackie Carter Geo-data forum - 4/4/2001

2 Overview of presentation Existing barriers to use Providing integrated access to Census Area Statistics and associated digital boundary data over the web (Casweb) Exploring/visualising Census Area Statistics over the web (Descartes) Future Developments Demonstration

3 MIMAS and the Census Dissemination Unit (CDU) Manchester InforMation and Associated Services – CDU JISC/ESRC funded CDU provides: –Support and dissemination for 1981 and 1991 Census of Population data –Development of custom software tools –Derived datasets –Specialist support and training –Currently ~ 3000 registered users

4 Census Area Statistics The UK Census provides the most comprehensive socio-economic data source for evidence-based research Main output is the Census Area Statistics (SAS/LBS) –aggregated data for a range of spatial units –counts of persons and households –pre-defined cross-tabulations

5 SAS/LBS tables 24 questions asked in 1991, 20,000 counts produced for area statistics SASLBS No. tables 86 (less detail) 99 (more detail) Spatial unit Enumeration district Ward

6 Barriers to Use Requires knowledge of the structure of the Census Area Statistics tables and geographical units Registration Use of specialist data retrieval software (pre-Casweb) Data handling skills to combine Census data with boundary data in mapping software

Counties/Regions Census geography

Counties

Districts

Counties Districts Wards

Counties Districts Wards EDs

12 Pre-defined Cross Tabulations LBS table 6 – Ethnic Group

13 Casweb Census Area Statistics on the Web Features –Intuitive web interface with 3-step selection process –List and map based selection options –Outputs boundaries integrated with the Census data

14 Caswebs 3 step selection process 1. Select area - from map or a list 2. Select tables 3. Select variables from tables

15 Download data Text format Mappable format –ArcView –MapInfo MIF/MID

16 Census Area Statistics: text format

17 Census Area Statistics: mappable format Census data Crown copyright Boundary data copyright Ed-Line Consortium Unemployment – Tyne and Wear

18 Combining Census Area Statistics and OS data from Digimap Census data © Crown copyright Boundary data © copyright Ed-Line Consortium OS data © Crown Copyright Ordnance Survey. An EDINA Digimap/JISC supplied service

19 Descartes Web based data exploration tool written in Java Supports visual exploration of spatially referenced datasets (such as the Census Area Statistics) – use the map as a thinking tool Developed at the German National Research Centre for Information Technology (GMD) (Bonn) Collaboration between GMD and MIMAS established in 1997

20 Descartes developments Descartes available online at Demonstrator dataset (Leics) and county/region datasets for registered users Casweb/Descartes Integration (CHCC Project) –Part of JISC 5/99 CHCC Project –Simplified Interface to Descartes –Temporal visualisation (1971 – 2001)

21 Demonstration Descartes best illustrated by demonstration Online visualisation of unemployment data for Tyne and Wear

22 Further information CDU website General census information Details of registration procedures Search facilities Glossary Census Learning and Teaching Project