ABJ30 Members and Friends,
The announcement below may have great value for the transportation community – 

***MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT***

Measuring People in Place: The geography of large scale population
surveys

The NSF-Census Research Network and the Universities of Colorado and
Tennessee invite applications to a specialist meeting focused on the
use of large scale population surveys to engage spatial questions in
the social sciences. Selected participants' expenses will be supported
by NSF # 1132008. THE WORKSHOP IS OCTOBER 4-6, 2012.  APPLICATION
DEADLINE 8/6/2012.

Large scale social surveys (such as the American Community Survey)
provide excellent estimates of population characteristics for large
geographic areas. There is a trade-off, however, between attribute
precision and geographic precision; as one zooms in from large to small
geographic areas the estimates become less precise. Recent changes to
the federal statistical system have made this trade-off between
geographic and attribute precision both more extreme and more explicit.
These changes are occurring as place and space are becoming an
increasingly salient in social sciences.

The purpose of this meeting is to engage these challenges through
research and cross-disciplinary relationships around the following
broad
themes:

1. Improving surveys: Is it possible to reduce uncertainty in small
area estimates through improved sampling, population controls, and/or
weighting strategies? Are there ways to improve the fidelity of
probability based population surveys to both population characteristics
and their spatial distribution?

2. Geographic Information Science and Survey Design: Is it possible to
reduce uncertainty in small area population estimates by incorporating
spatial methods, such as spatial sampling techniques, into traditional
survey methods? Can large spatial data bases, VGI, and other forms of
"big data" be used improve small area estimates?

3. Working with uncertainty: Are there effective ways to incorporate
uncertainty in data from surveys into analyses? Visually communicating
uncertainty in spatial information has been a longstanding challenge
for cartography and information visualization, are the advances in this
area? Can user-centered research improve survey design/dissemination?

Application Procedure (DEADLINE August 6th):

Applicants should submit:
1. A brief (300-500 word) position paper describing your interest in
the spatial aspects of large scale population surveys and/or one or
more of the above themes.

2. A one paragraph biographical statement and current CV.

Application should be submitted via e-mail by August 6th 2012 to:
seth.spielman@colorado.edu and nnagle@utk.edu. Applicants will be
notified of acceptance by August 10th 2012.

*******************
Seth E. Spielman
Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Colorado