How do you find the population served by a road using GIS? I have a layer of building footprint.

Answer 1

If you were to use a product like ESRI's ArcMap, you would first need to download the TIGER census data for the population that you are attempting to analyze. Then you would need to either digitize the road that you are interested in analyzing or obtain the road line feature from a government source. For example, in San Diego, the county government website has its on GIS data repository online that is free to use - you would need to download the ROADS shapefile or feature dataset, and then load it into the ArcMap software. You would then need to determine what distance from the road you would want to include (a mile, five miles, etc). Once you have done so, you would want to run the 'buffer' tool (to include the RIGHT and LEFT sides of the buffer, with a rounded end), using this distance. Once you do so, a polygon is then created to the extent to which you determined. You would then want to perform a SELECT BY LOCATION, selecting and INTERSECT between the buffer and the population data you loaded in earlier. You will then be able to see who is living within that distance radius (it will be highlighted in blue and selected in the attribute table). Note that this is a very basic workflow; you will want to investigate other possibilities, but this would get you started.