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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: 3, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Wednesday September 21 2016, @04:56PM

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Wednesday September 21 2016, @04:56PM (#404841)

    Not trying to be obtuse but I would think using Voronoi polyhedra to describe location would be ideal. There might need to be several layers, but it would complete map to any territory and allow all sorts of neat calculations...

    Please return to your normally scheduled discussion, with appropriate mathematics!

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