Can a network deployment be justified economically by the number of potential subscribers? How does one accurately locate the largest number of possible subscribers?

Accurate population data can help answer these fundamental network planning questions. With an empirical population distribution in hand, the RF engineer can plan a network to cover the most potential subscribers.

Until now, the problem has always been finding consistent, reliable and current population data.

Quality data

For most of the world, the best available official census data are at province level (i.e., one administrative division below national) and are of varying vintage, sometimes decades old. To address the need for a consistent global, high-resolution population database, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a sophisticated algorithm to augment census data by incorporating factors known to affect settlement geography patterns.

The resulting LandScan™ dataset provides global coverage of population at 1x1km resolution, the finest spatial resolution yet developed.

ComputaMaps has made the LandScan™ population data available for all or part of the world either as a stand-alone database or as an optional layer in our Region and Urban planner databases.

Measuring ambient population versus residential population

Most national censuses count populations by measuring where people sleep (or reside) rather than where they work or travel.

LandScan™ integrates daytime movements and collective travel habits into a single measure to produce a better representation of where people are located during an average day.

Population model

Probability coefficients are assigned to each value of each input variable, and a composite probability coefficient is calculated for each LandScan™ cell, independent of census data, which can then be used to apportion shares of actual population counts within any particular area of interest.

Coefficients for all regions are based on the following factors:

• Best available population counts from latest national census data
• Roads, weighted by distance from major roads
• Elevation, weighted by the presence of favorable slope conditions
• Land cover, weighted by type with exclusions for certain types
• Night-time lights of the world, weighted by frequency gain

Specifications

• Format: Mentum Planet/MapInfo; other common interchange formats available
• Projection: Geographic; UTM and other coordinate systems available
• Datum: WGS84
• Resolution: 0.00833 decimal degrees; 1x1km cell-size.

To request more information on LandScan please contact us