Vol. 14 No. 4 (2023):
Research Article

PoD: A Web Tool for Population Downscaling Using Areal Interpolation and Volunteered Geographic Information

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Marios Batsaris
Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
Sofia Zafeirelli
Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
Michail Vaitis
Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
Dimitris Kavroudakis
Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.m.bat.14.4.022.036
Categories

Published 2023-10-25

Keywords

  • population downscaling,
  • areal interpolation,
  • web tool,
  • GIS

How to Cite

Batsaris, Marios, Sofia Zafeirelli, Michail Vaitis, and Dimitris Kavroudakis. 2023. “PoD: A Web Tool for Population Downscaling Using Areal Interpolation and Volunteered Geographic Information”. European Journal of Geography 14 (4):22-36. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.m.bat.14.4.022.036.

Copyright (c) 2023 Marios Batsaris, Sofia Zafeirelli, Michail Vaitis, Dimitris Kavroudakis

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received 2023-06-02
Accepted 2023-10-25
Published 2023-10-25

Abstract

Population data are commonly sourced from censuses, and to meet confidentiality requirements, they are spatially aggregated into standardized enumeration units. However, the need often arises to transform such datasets into user-defined spatial scales, a process known as areal interpolation. Areal interpolation is the process of data transformation across spatial zones and is particularly suitable for aggregated data such as census data. While numerous areal interpolation methods exist, a lack of implementation tools have been witnessed. In this article, we introduce PoD, a web-based solution that encompasses four downscaling schemes. To illustrate the utility of the proposed tool, we conducted a case study using actual data from the city of Mytilini, Greece. We compared the results obtained through PoD with existing R-based implementations, in addition to evaluating their performance using a reference dataset. The outcomes of this evaluation affirm the effectivenes of the proposed PoD tool over alternative implementations.

Highlights:

  • Areal interpolation is broadly used to facilitate the conversion of population data across spatial zones.
  • A notable aspect concerning the areal interpolation of population data pertains to the identified lack of implementation tools.
  • The proposed tool demonstrates higher performance compared to existing alternatives.
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