AZTool
A software program for automated zone design
Supporting Materials
Introductory guides
Video tutorials
A series of video tutorials about AZTool, produced by the National Centre for Research Methods:
Martin, D. (2016) Automated zone design (part 1 of 4) https://youtu.be/BywFaZN-QzQ
Martin, D. (2016) Principles of automated zone design (part 2 of 4) https://youtu.be/VkjQFw_UP2Y
Martin, D. (2016) Introduction to AZTool software (part 3 of 4) https://youtu.be/cNxK-JiPNvU
Martin, D. (2016) Examples of automated zone design in practice (part 4 of 4) https://youtu.be/lCa9N0SbX3A
Key articles by the AZTool team
Martin D (1998) 2001 Census output areas: from concept to prototype, Population Trends, 94, 19-24
Martin D, Nolan A, Tranmer M (2001) The application of zone design methodology to the 2001 UK Census, Environment and Planning A, 33, 1949-1962 https://doi.org/10.1068/a3497
Martin D (2003) Extending the automated zoning procedure to reconcile incompatible zoning systems, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 17, 181-196 https://doi.org/10.1080/713811750
Cockings S, Martin D (2005) Zone design for environment and health studies using pre-aggregated data, Social Science & Medicine, 60, 2729 – 2742 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.11.005
Cockings S, Harfoot A, Martin D, Hornby D (2011) Maintaining existing zoning systems using automated zone design techniques: methods for creating the 2011 Census output geographies for England and Wales, Environment and Planning A, 43(10), 2399-2418 https://doi.org/10.1068/a43601
Cockings S, Harfoot A, Martin D, Hornby D (2013) Getting the foundations right: spatial building blocks for official population statistics, Environment and Planning A, 45(6), 1403-1420 https://doi.org/10.1068/a45276
Martin D, Cockings S, Harfoot A (2013) Development of a geographical framework for census workplace data, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A – Statistics in Society, 176, 585-602 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01054.x
Other useful references
Openshaw S (1977a) A geographical solution to scale and aggregation problems in region-building, partitioning and spatial modeling, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers New Series, 2, 459 - 472
Openshaw S (1977b) Algorithm 3: a procedure to generate pseudo-random aggregations of N zones into M zones, where M is less than N, Environment and Planning A, 9, 1423 - 1428
Openshaw S, Rao L (1995) Algorithms for re-engineering 1991 Census geography, Environment and Planning A, 27, 425 – 446
