Collaborative Research: HNDS-I: Data Infrastructure for Research on Historical Settlement and Population Growth in the United States

This project creates a data platform called HiSPLUS (Historical Settlement and Population Layers for the U.S.) that describes the history of population and housing patterns in the United States from 1860 to 2020. Scientists can use this new platform to study the social, demographic, urban and environmental transformations experienced throughout the country over the past two centuries. The project brings together data from several different sources. Housing and land parcel records are merged with building footprint and population data and transformed into publicly available data that can be used by everyone. The platform contains spatial data and data tables for most of the 48 conterminous states in the U.S., data that describe the built environment and population at fine spatial and temporal resolutions. This publicly accessible platform transforms the way scientists study social processes related to the built environment in rural and urban areas. In the future, HiSPLUS will be important for answering questions about land use, urban planning, and disaster management.

This project creates new datasets that include information about the characteristics of built structures, land use, and the distribution of the population, and merges them together. Linking these data in a single data platform creates a novel data resource that contains historical housing and population datasets with the highest spatial and temporal resolution to date. The HiSPLUS platform advances innovative methods of data analysis by developing approaches for merging spatial data from satellite imagery with population data and land parcel records and developing tools for correcting errors in the data as it evolves over time. The project also develops new models for local population counts that are based on the characteristics of housing structures. Such data provide scientists with the opportunity to answer important questions about the evolution of the built environment. The platform makes possible new research on long-run changes in the U.S. population, land use, urban development, and transportation.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.