Using Synthetic Population Generation to Replace Sample and Expansion Weights in Household Surveys for Small Area Estimation of Population Parameters

In this paper the authors illustrate the use of synthetic population generation methods to replace sample weights and expansion weights in household travel surveys. The authors use a combination of exogenous (US Census) and endogenous (the survey) data as the informants and in essence transfer information from the county level sample to the tracts. The method is based on a population synthesis approach called PopGen (PopGen 1.1, 2011) and is applied to the newly collected data in the California Household Travel Survey (CHTS). An illustration of using traditional sampling and expansion weights and synthetic population generation is illustrated at the tract level. The authors show synthetic population methods are able to recreate the entire spatial distribution of households and persons in small areas, recreate the variation that is lost when sampling. This method is capable of reproducing the variation in the real population and enables transferability without having to develop complicated methods. Moreover, it fills spatial gaps in data collection, produces a large database that is ready to be used in activity microsimulation, provides as byproducts sample and expansion weights, and offers the possibility to perform resampling for model estimation. However, additional testing and experimentation is also required.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ40 Travel Survey Methods.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Goulias, Konstadinos G
  • Ravulaparthy, Srinath K
  • Konduri, Karthik C
  • Pendyala, Ram M
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 23p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Census; Households; Population forecasting; Travel surveys
• Uncontrolled Terms: Small areas; Synthetic populations
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01514298
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-0501
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 12 2014 12:32PM