Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 24 June 2019
U.S. Census Bureau using aerial tech to help with 2020 count

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS knock on doors of homes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) that did not respond to
— The U.S. Census Bureau online or phone question-
is using new high-tech tools naires, Bishop said.
to help get an accurate The bureau gave a dem-
population count next year onstration of the new
as its faces challenges tal- technology at conference
lying people of color who early this year. Employees
live in remote places and showed how they could
can be wary of the federal analyze county subdivi-
government. sions on maps by looking
The agency is using aerial up a certain percentage of
images of rural communi- Spanish speakers or those
ties and hard-to-reach ar- making a certain amount
eas to verify addresses and of money.
determine where to send The specific addresses pin-
workers to ensure everyone pointed by the aerial im-
is counted, Census Bureau agery are largely kept pri-
Director Steven Dillingham vate, but can be shared
said. with some tribal and city
Satellites and planes take governments to help cre-
photos, and bureau em- ate boundaries and zoning
ployees compare the hous- areas, Bishop said. After a
ing captured in the images certain period, the informa-
to digital maps from the last tion has to be destroyed,
census, in 2010. It takes a she said.
fraction of the time need- The head of the Census
ed by workers in the field. Bureau came to New Mex-
The agency has used geo- ico last month for a first-
graphic technology since hand look at the struggle
1990 but has never had ac- to count people who live
cess to such accurate tools in far-flung places where
from the air, said Deirdre the new technology could
Dalpiaz Bishop, head of the help.
bureau's geography divi- Dillingham and a group
sion. from the Navajo Nation
That technology — known ventured along a wind-
as geographic information ing dirt road through me-
system, or GIS — uses com- sas and small canyons to
puters to analyze neigh- the home of Daniel Piaso,
borhoods, land formations, In this May 25, 2018 photo, Jose Espinoza, 18, stands out his trailer with his 4-month-old infant, Em- about 12 miles (19 kilome-
mily, and wife, Maria Rodriguez, 19, in Vado, N.M. while speaking about making only $50 a day
rivers and other data cap- picking onions. ters) west of To'Hajiilee,
tured by satellites or tradi- Associated Press New Mexico.
tional mapping. Dillingham tried to ask
The new technology to im- cation infrastructure. during a recent trip to New ble- and triple-checking Piaso, who speaks only Na-
prove the census comes Steven Romalewski, direc- Mexico, which has one of satellite images and those vajo, about the dwellings
amid concerns that tribal tor of the City University of the most difficult popula- captured by the Depart- on his property. A confused
areas and communities of New York's Mapping Ser- tions to accurately count. ment of Agriculture's Na- Piaso responded with help
color may be undercount- vice, said the criticism is fair The state has a sizable Na- tional Agriculture Imagery from an interpreter.
ed in the every-10-year but credited the Census Bu- tive American population Program during the grow- Arbin Mitchell, a tribal part-
tally that determines the reau for using its geograph- and the highest percent- ing seasons in the continen- nership specialist with the
amount of federal money ic and aerial technology to age of Hispanic residents in tal U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, said el-
states receive and whether gather needed data about the nation. Bishop said the Around 100 technicians ders like Piaso are most at
they gain or lose U.S. con- the most difficult popula- technology will especially are able to examine the risk of missing out.
gressional seats. tions to count."The technol- help such areas that have entire nation with satellite "They do not trust strangers
The U.S. Supreme Court ogy alone is no guarantee struggled for accurate and aerial images while who might approach them
is deciding whether the that you will have an ac- counts. sitting at their computers. asking questions about the
Trump administration can curate count," said Ro- Another is Mississippi's ma- They are assigned specific census," Mitchell said.
add a citizenship question malewski, who is mapping jority-black Bolivar County, neighborhood blocks and U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich
to the 2020 census, which "hard to count" communi- where only 59.7% of house- look for growth and decline and Tom Udall, both New
opponents say would sup- ties ahead of the census. holds mailed back their in the number of residential Mexico Democrats, want-
press the count of immi- "But if you leverage data 2010 census questionnaire, buildings by comparing im- ed Dillingham to see the
grants who fear revealing with satellite imagery, you according to CUNY's Cen- ages from 2009 to the pres- challenges of counting ru-
their status to federal offi- have the best information ter for Urban Research. ent. ral and poor populations
cials. before you." The national rate was 74% Two hours of canvassing with little to no internet ac-
The Census Bureau also is That's what census em- in 2010, according to a in the field during the 2010 cess.
facing criticism for planning ployees intend to do while Census Bureau news re- census now takes less than "We have a lot of concerns,
internet and telephone avoiding the political bat- lease. two minutes in the office, so we are doubling down
questionnaires, which ad- tles, Dillingham said. The bureau began using the bureau said. to get the message out to
vocates say would be more "The culture of the census the new imagery technolo- "With that information, we people about how impor-
likely to overlook rural areas dictates us to be impartial," gy in 2013, Bishop said. Em- can then decide to use tant the census is," Heinrich
without reliable communi- the bureau director said ployees have been dou- our staff more efficiently" to said.q