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Geographic Support System Proposed Initiative – FY 2011 and Beyond

Timothy Trainor

U.S. Census Bureau

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What is the Proposed Geographic Support System Initiative?

• A budget increase over our base Geographic Support System funding for a 10-year lifecycle program

• An integrated program of improved address coverage, continual spatial feature updates, and enhanced quality assessment and measurement– All activities contribute to Master Address File (MAF) improvement

– Builds on the accomplishments of this decade’s MAF/TIGER Enhancement Program (MTEP)

• Supports the goal of a targeted (vs. nationwide) address canvassing for the 2020 Decennial Census

• Continual updates throughout the decade support the American Community Survey and other current surveys

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Why do we need the GSS Initiative?

• A response to stakeholder and oversight recommendations– The General Accountability office, the Office of the

Inspector General, and the National Academies of Science have reported deficiencies of the Geographic Support System in their evaluations

• The lack of a comprehensive geographic update program between censuses

• Associated negative impact on ongoing programs such as the American Community Survey, other current surveys, and small areas estimates programs

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A logical next step…

• Between 2003 – 2008 we worked with partners to update and improve the positional accuracy of TIGER

• That effort was a HUGE success!!• The MAF/TIGER Accuracy Improvement Project

was a significant investment that we want to build upon

• Now focus is on improving our address coverage and quality and maintaining the spatial data

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Three Integrated Components

Address Updates

123 Testdata RoadAnytown, CA 94939

Lat 37 degrees, 9.6 minutes NLon 119 degrees, 45.1 minutes W

Quality Measurement

Street/FeatureUpdates

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• Complete and current address coverage in areas without city-style addresses– Focus on rural areas– Puerto Rico– Group Quarters

GSS Initiative - Addresses

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GSS Initiative - Addresses

• Currently, our primary sources for address updates:– USPS Delivery Sequence File (DSF)– Field updates from censuses and surveys

• For FY 11 and beyond, additional sources will focus on best available data from partnership and commercial files

• Currently strengthening our working relationship with USPS

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• Complete and current address coverage in areas without city-style address (particular focus on rural areas)

• Beyond the annual American Community Survey, current surveys will be using the Master Address File to support their statistical frames and surveys

GSS Initiative - Addresses

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• Continuous update of street network and attributes– Developing a collaboration with USGS

• Sources will focus on best available data from partnership and commercial files

• Extensive use of imagery– Data acquisition– Data verification– Data quality assurance

GSS Initiative - Features

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GSS Initiative - Quality

• Quality improvements apply to:– Address and Spatial Data– IT Processes– Geographic Products

• Quantitative measures of address and spatial data quality are needed

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Supporting a Targeted Address Canvassing

• There will be a shift in focus – from canvassing each street to… – establishing an acceptable address list for each level

of government

• What defines “acceptable” will be a partnership collaboration between governments and the Census Bureau

• Address quality will be an important component

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Program OverviewFY2011

Key decisionpoints

FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020

Street/Feature Updates

Develop: partner address listreceipt / processing systems

Develop: GPS capabilityProcure GPS Receivers

Identify : Group Quarters addresslists

Identify and Develop: Puerto Rico address updatecapability (Establish MOA with USPS early 2014)

Develop: CAUS Puerto Ricocollection capabilty

Develop: improved geocoding system

Identify: viable change detectiontechniques

Evaluate: Island Area addresses

Conducttargeted AdCan

Update the MAF using partner and commercial address lists*

Update the MAF using Group Quarters address lists*

Update the MAF using Puerto Rico address lists*(Semi-annual Puerto Rico DSF Refresh)

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CAUS GPS address listing of targeted blocks in Puerto Rico (100 annually)*

Implement: improved geocoding system*

Add Island Area addresses to the MAF*

Implement: change detection technology*

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? Targeted AdCan key decision point

Develop: partnerfeature receipt /

processingUpdate TIGER using partner and commercial GIS files*

GPS control point acquisition*

CAUS GPS feature collection in targeted blocks*

TIGER and partner/commercial GIS file quality assessments*

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Address Updates

20,000 blocks annually (GPS begins FY2014)* CAUS GPS address listing of targeted blocks*16,000 blocks annually (non - GPS) *

Updates to TIGER: Focus on high priority geographicareas*

Identify: commercial address lists

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Identifycommercial GIS

files

Quality Measurement

MAF and partner/commercial address list source data quality assessments*Evaluate: MAF quality and sourcedata assessment*

Proposed Program

Existing

Expanded

Implementation

Research

Active Program

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Where are we now?• Our FY 2011 budget is waiting for approval by Congress

• Geography Division management devoted a 2 day session to begin planning for the FY2011 proposed initiative

• Census Bureau is forming teams to address specific topics:• Address coverage and sources• Feature coverage and sources• Policy• Partnerships• Quality assessment and evaluation• MAF/TIGER Integration• Research and Development• Geocoding• GPS• Project and Contract Management

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• Technical consulting expertise:– Attend the GEO offsite; identify key or unresolved issues, areas of

potential concern, perceived knowledge gaps, recommendations COMPLETE

– Research the state and anticipated future direction of addresses and addressing

– Research the use of handheld computers by statistical agencies and other applicable users

– Identify the current state and anticipated future direction of potentially useful developing technologies (example: change detection)

– Research address and spatial data digital exchange and integration

– Research geospatial data quality measurement

Ongoing WorkContracting Research & Development

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• Communicate with professional organizations

• Communicate with advisory groups

• Conduct market research– Develop a list of potential vendors/services– Cooperative research & development in areas of

common interest using “no cost contracts”– Develop a GSS Initiative Contract Plan

Ongoing WorkOutreach and Market Research

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Questions?

Timothy F. TrainorChief, Geography Division

U.S. Census Bureautimothy.f.trainor@census.gov

(301)-763-2131