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posted by martyb on Wednesday September 21 2016, @02:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the carefully-choose-your-buckets dept.

My job was to examine blood lead data from our local Hurley Children's Hospital in Flint for spatial patterns, or neighborhood-level clusters of elevated levels, so we could quash the doubts of state officials and confirm our concerns. Unbeknownst to me, this research project would ultimately help blow the lid off the water crisis, vindicating months of activism and outcry by dedicated Flint residents.

As I ran the addresses through a precise parcel-level geocoding process and visually inspected individual blood lead levels, I was immediately struck by the disparity in the spatial pattern. It was obvious Flint children had become far more likely than out-county children to experience elevated blood lead when compared to two years prior.

How had the state so blatantly and callously disregarded such information? To me – a geographer trained extensively in geographic information science, or computer mapping – the answer was obvious upon hearing their unit of analysis: the ZIP code.

Their ZIP code data included people who appeared to live in Flint and receive Flint water but actually didn't, making the data much less accurate than it appeared.

ZIP codes – the bane of my existence as a geographer. They confused my childhood friends into believing they lived in an entirely different city. They add cachet to parts of our communities (think 90210) while generating skepticism toward others relegated to less sexy ZIP codes.

A tale to remind the scientists and technologists among us why it's important to do our jobs well.


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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday September 21 2016, @04:01PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday September 21 2016, @04:01PM (#404822) Homepage
    Do UK postal codes do a better job of identifying geograpical regions, though?

    What about NW4's incursion right between HA0 and HA9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NW_postcode_area_map.svg
    Or N14's landgrab where EN2 or EN4 should more sensibly be? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/N_postcode_area_map.svg

    Comparing populations, assuming A-ZZ are used, and on average 25 numeric districts per letter prefix (25 is way less than L, M, S, etc. but more than a whole bunch, I admit to pulling that number out of my arse), the first half of a UK postcode covers almost an identical number of people, so these regions are comparable. Even assuming errors in the assumptions, the overlap in ranges of populations in US 5-digit or UK up-to-2-letter-up-to-2-digit regions is pretty large. So the usefulness of those codes for geographical purposes should also be comparable if what you say is correct.

    The fact that the UK has an extra digit and two extra letters is irrelevant - the US has "+4", namely four extra digits, theoretically too.
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  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday September 21 2016, @08:00PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday September 21 2016, @08:00PM (#404900) Journal

    What about NW4's incursion right between HA0 and HA9

    The first three to four digits don't give much fine-grained identification. The first two digits typically identify a city and nearby towns and villages. The full post code, however, typically narrows it down to a single street. The combination of house / flat number and postcode uniquely identifies a property (some large buildings have their own postcodes so that they won't need new ones allocated if they're later subdivided). Compare, for example, Cambridge and Cambridge Mass. The former is identified by the CB prefix and then has a large number of subdivisions that narrow it down to individual streets (or parts of streets, in some cases). The latter has 5 ZIP codes for the entire city. ZIP +4 apparently would give similar fidelity, but was never widely adopted.

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    • (Score: 2) by eof on Thursday September 22 2016, @05:54AM

      by eof (5559) on Thursday September 22 2016, @05:54AM (#405040)

      I don't know what you mean by zip+4 "was never widely adopted" since it is in use now. Certainly businesses use it when writing, whether or not you provide them with the information. There is a lot of variation with individuals using it, but I've always known mine.