Development of Census Mapping and Use of GIS in China

Gao HansongCensus Center of National Bureau of Statistics, China10.2007

1 Overview: China Census

• Population Census (every 10 years )2000(5th) , 2010……

• Economic Census (every 5 years )2004(1st),2008,2013……

• Agriculture Census (every 10 years )2007(1st),2017

• In China, The local government and local statistics officials take a more important role in Census

• Census is organized in accordance with administrative divisions: province, city, county/district, town, village/block and enumeration areas(EA)

2 Development of Census Mapping and Use of GIS

• In the 2000 census, most parts of China used hand-drawn census maps, not digital maps, because available maps were too small to provide sufficient details, or considered out of date.

• But in the past 5 years, many cities got high-quality and large-scale maps, by surveying and aerial photography.

• Some city digitizing the census maps and developed local Statistic-Geographic Information Systems

• Census data are linked with spatial data, by adding hand-drawn EA’s boundaries above the new maps as an overlay.

• Usually the local bureau of statistics and their cooperation commercial company develop and manage these systems which are funded by local government

• GIS software: SuperMap, ArcGIS, MapInfo

A Statistic-Geographic Information System of Qingshan District, Baotou City

Census map of Qingshan: buildings, enumeration area’s boundary and POI

The system integrate the data of Population Census, Economic Census and other statistic survey

Users can inquiries and analysis all the local data about population, economy, social problem, with table, graph or thematic map

• We published CD-ROM named as “Annual Electric Maps of National Social and Economic Statistics” since 2004, which is a simple GIS for query at county/district level.

• The map scale is 1:250,000• The attribute data includes statistic data of every

county in the whole country, including population, work, education, industry and so on

3 Problems

• Uniform standard China is a big country, but in very different.

• There is no uniform standard of census mapping in China.

• Some cities have accurate census maps and developed systems , while some have only cursory maps drawn in paper.

• Different areas have different difficulty • In the big city:

Roads and buildings change soon. The expenses of buying large-scale maps and updating are too expensive

• In some area:The local government don’t have enough money to survey, update maps and take digital census mapping

• We are preparing to establish a uniform standard of census mapping, which can be used in all the census and in most areas of China.

• Include: framework, approach, software and so on

• Some areas will be funded

Spatial Data• All the activities about surveying and

mapping are under the supervision of State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) in China

• It’s hard to got spatial data which can be used in census mapping, especially large-scale maps

• We need to cooperate with SBSM to got spatial data. We need more large-scale maps which is updated to support census mapping.

• We will make a more closer cooperation with SBSM. Maybe a standard of basic map elements for census will be established soon.

4 Prospect

• We have a project to construct a platform named as ESSGIS (Economic and Social Statistic GIS), include census mapping, management of the census database, analysis of the data and data dissemination

GPS&PDA used in census

Software for census mapping

ESSGIS

Census data management

Census data analysis

Census data dissemination

We are developing a simple software used in census mapping instead of manual drawing.

We are applying for special funds to complete the project .

We will make a trial in the 2008’s China Economic Census

Maybe in 2010 population census……

Thank you