The Sub-State District/Regional Council

as a Geospatial Unit of Analytical Geography

for the United States

by Thomas J. Christoffel, AICP, FeRSA

Regional Intelligence – Regional Communities, LLC

50th Annual meeting of the

Southern Regional Science Association

New Orleans, Louisiana

March 25, 2011

The Regional Analysis Problem

� Regional analysis in the United States is limited by

the Federal Information Processing Standards

(FIPS) codes created in the 1960’s.� State FIPS codes were assigned alphabetically for states beginning with 01 for Alabama.

� Within states, counties and comparable geographies were also done alphabetically beginning with 01 then 03 – new county option.

� Tyranny of the Alphabet – Easy to find individual state or county data in a list, but not to relate one jurisdiction to another in a table or spreadsheet.

Example: FIPS Code and Spatial Relationships for States Compared

Metropolitan Statistical Areas

� Regional aggregation was done in the establishment of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), which were coded separately.

� Many of these regions matched the geography of the Metropolitan Councils of Government of that time.

� That is no longer true. And the non-metro counties are out in the analytic cold.

MSA Limitations

� The relationships which define MSAs, primarily workforce commuting, led to their widening over time to include more jurisdictions.

� Since the geographic base changes over time, there is no option for long term analysis of change on a standard multi-jurisdictional regional geography.

� MSA totals obscure differences within the underlying territory, which has lead to faulty analysis.

� Development of Micropolitan Areas is not a solution.

Virginia Planning Districts – Region Numbers Have Worked Like a FIPS Code Since 1968

United States Country Geo-code – 5140In Global Geo-code Proposal

� Next step is a geo-code for each State.

� The U.S. Census Bureau has defined regions and divisions.

� This framework was used to develop NSEW State geo-codes beginning in the Northeast and moving south.

State Geo-codes – USA - What does this accomplish? Difference – Maine is 01 compared to FIPS 23; Alabama is

21 compared to 01

Division Geo-code Region/ State Abr. FIPS 1. New England Northeast/ 01 Maine ME 23 02 New Hampshire NH 33 03 Vermont VT 50 04 Massachusetts MA 25 05 Rhode Island RI 44 06 Connecticut CT 09 2. Middle Atlantic Northeast / 07 New York NY 36 08 New Jersey NJ 34 09 Pennsylvania PA 42 3. South Atlantic South / 10 Delaware DE 10 11 Maryland MD 24 12 District of Columbia DC 11 13 Virginia VA 51 14 West Virginia WV 54 15 North Carolina NC 37 16 South Carolina SC 45 17 Georgia GA 13 18 Florida FL 12 4. East South Central South / 19 Kentucky KY 21 20 Tennessee TN 47 21 Alabama AL 01 22 Mississippi MS 28

Division Geo-code Region/ State Abr. FIPS 5. West South Central South / 23 Louisiana LA 22 24 Arkansas AR 05 25 Oklahoma OK 40 26 Texas TX 48 6. East North Central Midwest / 27 Michigan MI 26 28 Ohio OH 39 29 Indiana IN 18 30 Illinois IL 17 31 Wisconsin WI 55 7. West North Central Midwest/ 32 Minnesota MN 27 33 North Dakota ND 38 34 South Dakota SD 46 35 Iowa IA 19 36 Nebraska NE 31 37 Missouri MO 29 38 Kansas KS 20 8. Mountain West/ 39 Montana MT 30 40 Wyoming WY 56 41 Idaho ID 16 42 Nevada NV 32 43 Utah UT 49 44 Colorado CO 08 45 New Mexico NM 35 46 Arizona AZ 04 9. Pacific West/ 47 Alaska AK 02 48 Washington WA 53 49 Oregon OR 41 50 California CA 06 51 Hawaii HI 15

Quick look at Substate Districts/RCs01. Maine 02. New Hampshire

03. Vermont 04. Massachusetts

05. Rhode Island 06. Connecticut

07. New York 08. New Jersey

09. Pennsylvania 10. Delaware

11. Maryland 12. District of Columbia

13. Virginia 14. West Virginia

15. North Carolina 16. South Carolina

17. Georgia 18. Florida

19. Kentucky 20. Tennessee

21. Alabama 22. Mississippi

23. Louisiana 24. Arkansas

25. Oklahoma 26. Texas

27. Michigan 28. Ohio

29. IndianaRC gaps (left) filled by MPO (right))

30. IllinoisLooks complex (left) but general alignment to DOT Districts (right)

31. Wisconsin 32. Minnesota

33. North Dakota 34. South Dakota

35. Iowa 36. Nebraska

37. Missouri 38. Kansas

39. Montana 40. Wyoming

41. Idaho 42. Nevada

43. Utah 44. Colorado

45. New Mexico 46. Arizona

47. Alaska 48. Washington

49. Oregon 50. California

51. Hawaii U.S. All at once

How do geo-codes enable region-building for analysis?

Example: Mid-Atlantic Region with Regional Councils as the Unit of Analysis State Codes 5140-08 NJ to 5140-14 WV

Mid-Atlantic Change by Regional Council Region – Richmond Region in its Mid-Atlantic Context, not just Virginia

% change – provides a different picture .

Loss of countryside –viewshed? Region land area less Federal and State Lands – including Urban Areas

Overall density in 2005 drops when Urban areas pull ed out – with time series we could see better the sprawls as buil d out occurs.

Goals of this PresentationThe purpose of this paper is to:

� Present this effort to researchers and practitioners

� To find people who may be interested in this project for analysis of other multi-jurisdictional regions in state or multi-state geographies and

�To increase visibility of regional council geography and organizations in the U.S. As geo-political regions, they can also be used as regional communities to be taken into account for redistricting for State Houses and Congressional Districts.

Thank you!

Regional Intelligence – Regional Communities, LLC

Tom (Thomas J.) Christoffel, AICP, FeRSA, Editor

Regional Community Development News

P.O. Box 1444

Front Royal, Virginia (VA 22630), USA

E-mail: Tom.Christoffel@gmail.com

Phone or fax: 1-540-635-8582

Web: http://ri-rc.com

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