An User-customized Web Tool for Geospatial Data Conflation
Abstract Code: 10815

Abstract

This paper will discuss how a complete workflow of spatial data conflation can increase the inclusion of geography communities. Data conflation can provide a solid base for analyzing important attributes across datasets.
Many geospatial analyses in Geographic information systems (GIS) involve utilizing spatial datasets that come from different sources or points of times. One common challenge faced by researchers is the significant difference in spatial boundaries among these systems that causes inconvenience in analyzing population change and migration within the same spatial unit. It is therefore necessary to harmonize geospatial features such as administrative boundaries from multiple sources to create a better dataset. This process is known as conflation. Even though some commercial and non-profit organizations have made efforts on datasets conflation, this process is a black box for users as it lacks a theoretical and methodological framework. Generally, conflation methods commonly lack both a formal description of the complex match relation, and universal performance evaluation system. The logic of a conflation process is often buried in programming code and opaque to the end user.
The present study has developed a workflow to makes the complicated conflation process comprehensible to a broad group of users using an accessible web portal. Their social studies and surveys may heavily depend on multi-dimension data. The workflow will benefit everyone entrée and the usage of a variety of data, especially when the comparison of different datasets is needed.