Spatial Sampling for Collecting Demographic Data

Naresh Kumar, University of Iowa and Brown University

This article demonstrates the application of geographic information systems and remote sensing to construct a sampling frame and stochastic random point simulation in this sampling frame for a demographic survey. The proposed methodology was tested for the sampling of households in Delhi Metropolitan. Since a household sampling frame was not available, the sampling frame of residential areas within different air pollution strata was constructed, and the residential area weighted 2000 random points were simulated within the identified frame. The simulated random points were transferred onto a street map and into a global positioning system (GPS). These points were then navigated using GPS to identify households at the simulated location and acquire their consents. A total of 1576 of 2000 simulated locations were found suitable and households at these locations participated in the survey administered during January and April 2004.