CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE FOR GEOGRAPHIC UNITS: EVIDENCE ON THE QUANTITY, DEGREE, AND LOCATION OF PUBLIC USE MICRODATA AREA (PUMA) FRAGMENTATION Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Social scientists investigating how context varies by geographical location and/or how macro-level phenomenon affects individual outcomes often make use of U.S. Census Bureau Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files where microunits can only be geographically located to Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) polygons. Most spatial analysis investigations with PUMAs ignore the fact that many of them are multipart polygons-spatially separated polygons that share the same attribute and are stored as a single feature in a vector file. We briefly discuss the theoretical premises of how geographical boundaries are created for macro units and investigate the quantity, degree, and location of PUMA fragmentation. We argue that the basic contiguity principle (the assumption that spatial analysis uses polygon centroids for solid and contiguous geographic units) in spatial dependence analysis is being violated with many PUMAs in the U.S. mainland- where Texas, California, Tennessee, and Illinois merit special attention. Future research should outline a method for handling multipart polygons in spatial and hierarchical analyses.

published proceedings

  • HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography
  • HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES – Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography

author list (cited authors)

  • Siordia, C., & Wunneburger, D. F.

citation count

  • 2

complete list of authors

  • Siordia, Carlos||Wunneburger, Douglas F

publication date

  • November 2013