Return to Question

Let's say I have one polygon layer counties with the polygons of administrative borders and another layer postal codes with the polygons of postal code areas.

I have some statistical values per polygon for both, let's say the population per county and the number of people who read Magazine X per postal code.

Both datasets have the same total coverage, they are always overlapping but the boundaries of the polygons inside are very different.

What options are there to combine values here? For example if I would like to calculate the number of people in county Y who read Magazine X? I know this is a hard problem, especially because in the example I chose population in reality is not uniformly distributed in a county nor a postal code area. Still, surely there are some existing techniques?

I would prefer (the names of and ideas behind) techniques or algorithms to "names of functions in ArcGIS".

Let's say I have one polygon layer counties with the polygons of administrative borders and another layer postal codes with the polygons of postal code areas.

I have some statistical values per polygon for both, let's say the population per county and the number of people who read Magazine X per postal code.

Both datasets have the same total coverage, they are always overlapping but the boundaries of the polygons inside are very different.

What options are there to combine values here? For example if I would like to calculate the number of people in county Y who read Magazine X? I know this is a hard problem, especially because in the example I chose population in reality is not uniformly distributed in a county nor a postal code area. Still, surely there are some existing techniques?

I am looking for general terms and ideas behind techniques or algorithms, not specific tools in software.

Let's say I have one polygon layer counties with the polygons of administrative borders and another layer postal codes with the polygons of postal code areas.

I have some statistical values per polygon for both, let's say the population per county and the number of people who read Magazine X per postal code.

Both datasets have the same total coverage, they are always overlapping but the boundaries of the polygons inside are very different.

What options are there to combine values here? For example if I would like to calculate the number of people in county Y who read Magazine X? I know this is a hard problem, especially because in the example I chose population in reality is not uniformly distributed in a county nor a postal code area. Still, surely there are some existing techniques?

I would prefer (the names of and ideas behind) techniques or algorithms to names of functions in ArcGIS.

Let's say I have one polygon layer counties with the polygons of administrative borders and another layer postal codes with the polygons of postal code areas.

I have some statistical values per polygon for both, let's say the population per county and the number of people who read Magazine X per postal code.

Both datasets have the same total coverage, they are always overlapping but the boundaries of the polygons inside are very different.

What options are there to combine values here? For example if I would like to calculate the number of people in county Y who read Magazine X? I know this is a hard problem, especially because in the example I chose population in reality is not uniformly distributed in a county nor a postal code area. Still, surely there are some existing techniques?

I would prefer (the names of and ideas behind) techniques or algorithms to "names of functions in ArcGIS".

Let's say I have one polygon layer counties with the polygons of administrative borders and another layer postal codes with the polygons of postal code areas.

I have some statistical values per polygon for both, let's say the population per county and the number of people who read Magazine X per postal code.

Both datasets have the same total coverage, they are always overlapping but the boundaries of the polygons inside are very different.

What options are there to combine values here? For example if I would like to calculate the number of people in county Y who read Magazine X? I know this is a hard problem, especially because in the example I chose population in reality is not uniformly distributed in a county nor a postal code area. Still, surely there are some existing techniques?

I would prefer (the names of and ideas behind) techniques or algorithms to names of functions in ArcGIS. ;)

Let's say I have one polygon layer counties with the polygons of administrative borders and another layer postal codes with the polygons of postal code areas.

I have some statistical values per polygon for both, let's say the population per county and the number of people who read Magazine X per postal code.

Both datasets have the same total coverage, they are always overlapping but the boundaries of the polygons inside are very different.

What options are there to combine values here? For example if I would like to calculate the number of people in county Y who read Magazine X? I know this is a hard problem, especially because in the example I chose population in reality is not uniformly distributed in a county nor a postal code area. Still, surely there are some existing techniques?

I would prefer (the names of and ideas behind) techniques or algorithms to names of functions in ArcGIS.