Population 24/7 Near Real Time: Data Library, Sample Outputs and Batch Files for England, 2011

This data collection comprises a data library, sample outputs, batch files and accompanying documentation from the ESRC-funded project “Population247NRT: Near real-time spatiotemporal population estimates for health, emergency response and national security”. The data comprise a structured set of input data for use with the authors’ SurfaceBuilder247 software and sample outputs which estimate the population distribution of England at specific times on specific dates, referenced to 2011 census population totals. The sample output files (provided as GeoTIFFs) contain population estimates in 200m grid cells, based on the British National Grid, for 02:00 (2am) and 14:00 (2pm) on a typical weekday in University and school term-time and out of term-time. The estimates are broken down by seven age/economic activity sub-groups for term-time and six for out of term-time, and include estimates of population activity in residential, workplace, education, healthcare and road transportation domains. The data library, which has been constructed entirely using open data sources, comprises population estimates, by age/economic activity sub-groups, for point locations (typically population-weighted centroids of census output areas and workplace zones, or postcode centroids of sites such as schools or hospitals); time profiles representing usual patterns of population activity at these sites during a 24-hour period; and background grid layers representing the land surface area and major road network. SurfaceBuilder247 uses the data library to generate time-specific gridded population estimates by redistributing the population of each sub-group across the available locations and background grid in accordance with the reference time profiles. The sample output grids provided in this resource may be used directly in GIS software or, alternatively, the input data library may be reprocessed using SurfaceBuilder247 to generate estimates for specific dates and times of interest to the user. Sample batch and session parameter files are included in the resource.