Whither Land Area? A Case for Retaining the Status Quo for the 1996 Census - ARCHIVED

The purpose of this document is to report on the reasoning for continuing to use the digital planimeter for calculating land area for the 1996 Census. Despite the fact that the data are subject to a number of errors and logical inconsistencies, the Geography Division does not yet have a digital database in place to support the automated calculation of land area.

This report first provides an historical background on the treatment of land area. It then presents the results of some land area tests based on 1991 data. The tests include the actual use of the digital planimeter, as well as logical consistency checks that compare land area with total area. Finally, a description of the 1996 Digital Cartographic File of enumeration areas (EA/DCF) demonstrates the reason why that file is not employed to calculate land area in an automated fashion.