Pitfalls and challenges of combining survey and georeferenced data |
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| Coordinator 1 | Dr Philip Adebahr-Maskow (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) |
| Coordinator 2 | Professor Oliver Arránz Becker (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) |
| Coordinator 3 | Mr Torvid Kreisler (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) |
The growing use of geo-referenced data, such as geospatial, satellite, GPS tracking and social media data, offers promising opportunities to enrich survey data and provide regionally sensitive insights. However, as their importance grows, both old and new challenges are emerging. This session aims to bring together researchers to discuss the methodological, ethical and practical complexities of incorporating geo-referenced data into survey research.
Key topics include:
1) Data quality: Crowdsourced data (e.g. OpenStreetMap) often lack standardisation, leading to quality concerns. There are also technical issues in interpreting data, such as satellite imagery, and dealing with incomplete data due to volunteerism. Because of the latter, we know little or nothing about what data is missing. There is also a need to rethink response bias and even common concepts of (unit/item) non-response, as well as common solutions such as weighting and imputation.
2) Composition of spatial aggregates: Regional analysis can also be challenging as spatial units vary in size, quality and even change over time.
3) In addition, the use of approximate locations raises ethical concerns about privacy and data protection. Methods to meet data protection requirements need to be discussed in order to open up data sources.
4) In addition to the challenges mentioned above, the integration and harmonisation of geo-referenced and survey data poses its own challenges, which can also be address in this session.
We welcome contributions from all disciplines and encourage papers that present novel tools, techniques and ideas, methodological solutions, critical reflections on current practices, and studies that highlight the challenges and innovations in combining survey and georeferenced data.