In
data analysis
Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, en ...
involving geographical locations, geo-imputation or geographical imputation methods are steps taken to replace
missing values for exact locations with approximate locations derived from associated data. They assign a reasonable location or geographic based attribute (e.g.,
census tract
A census tract, census area, census district or meshblock is a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census. Sometimes these coincide with the limits of cities, towns or other administrative areas and several tracts commonly exi ...
) to a person by using both the demographic characteristics of the person
and the population characteristics from a larger geographic aggregate area in which the person was geocoded (e.g., postal delivery area or county). For example, if a person's census tract was known and no other address information was available then geo-imputation methods could be used to probabilistically assign that person to a smaller geographic area, such as a census block group.
See also
*
Geocoding
Address geocoding, or simply geocoding, is the process of taking a text-based description of a location, such as an address or the name of a place, and returning geographic coordinates, frequently latitude/longitude pair, to identify a locat ...
*
Imputation (statistics)
In statistics, imputation is the process of replacing missing data with substituted values. When substituting for a data point, it is known as "unit imputation"; when substituting for a component of a data point, it is known as "item imputation" ...
Notes and references
* Jones, S. G.; Ashby, A. J.; Momin, S. R.; Naidoo, A. (2010) "Spatial Implications Associated with Using Euclidean Distance Measurements and Geographic Centroid Imputation in Health Care Research", ''Health Services Research'', 45 (1), 316–327 {{doi, 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2009.01044.x
Geocodes
Geographic information systems
Missing data