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Influence of Demographic and Health Survey Point Displacements on Raster-Based Analyses
Authors: Carolina Perez-Heydrich, Joshua L. Warren, Clara R. Burgert, and Michael E. Emch
Source: Spatial Demography , Published online; DOI: 10.1007/s40980-015-0013-1
Topic(s): GIS/GPS
Country: Africa
  Multiple African Countries
Published: JUN 2015
Abstract: With this paper we explore the sensitivity of study results to spatial displacements associated with Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data in research that integrates ancillary raster data. Through simulation studies, we found that the impact of DHS point displacements on raster-based analyses can be moderated through the generation of covariates representing average values from neighborhood buffers. Additionally, raster surface characteristics (i.e., spatial smoothness) were found to affect the extent of bias introduced through point displacements. Although simple point extraction produced unbiased estimates in analyses involving smooth continuous surfaces, it is not recommended in analyses that involve categorical raster surfaces.