Overview

The U.S. Census provides billions of pieces of often complex data about millions of exceptionally diverse people. For many urban planners, demographers, research professionals, educators, and students who work with the data, the big questions are: How do I begin to sort it all out? What does it mean? How can I manage the information faster and better? What can I learn by using it? Unlocking the Census with GIS is an important new book describing how geographic information systems (GIS) can be used by novices and experienced users alike to better access, understand, manage, and analyze myriad kinds of census data and census-related information and present it in a spatial format. This easy-to-navigate volume includes an introduction to the Census of Population and Housing; a look at the Economic Census and other economic data sources; handson explanations of how to acquire census data and census maps and then connect the two; a detailed tutorial on using American FactFinder, the Census Bureau's main Web-based data access tool; guidelines on using databases to manage and link census data; helpful discussions of demographic, social, and economic variables; detailed explanations of housing and transportation data; and guides to disseminating the results of census analyses. An ample number of maps, tables, sidebars, and in-depth boxed examples and explanations help guide readers to a fuller understanding of the census and how valuable it can be to those using powerful GIS software tools. As the authors note, the census can be a dauntingly large and complex beast, but Unlocking the Census with GIS is an essential key for researchers and planners using modern computer technology to better understand where and how people live, work, travel, spend, and play.

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9781589481138

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Alan Peters is a professor and head of urban and regional planning at the University of Sydney and received his Ph.D. in urban planning from Rutgers University in 1989. Most of his research focuses on economic development, where he has used GIS to help analyze such issues as tax competition and the effectiveness of employment creation policy. Heather MacDonald is the course director in planning at the School of Built Environment at the University of Technology, Sydney. In 2009, MacDonald won prize for best article in Journal of Planning History from the American Society of City and Regional Planning History for her paper about the U.S. Census and planning.

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