The Need for Optimized Analytical Zones in LMICs: Problematizing the Ward Zoning System in Nigeria

EasyChair Preprint 2949

Abstract

In spatial analytics, well-known zoning problems include: MAUP, ecological fallacy, small numbers problem and gerrymandering. These are more acute in LMICs like Nigeria, wherein extant zoning systems are both dated and likely to be grossly suboptimal because they are products of manual zone design methods. Using an automated zone design method, this study problematizes extant ward zoning system in Nigeria, with remedial insights on their empirical spatial optimization. Some distal implications are also explicated from an equity-sensitive perspective. Current zoning biases are products of historical processes of inequality in political power, which were entrenched by successive military regimes post-independence.

Keyphrases: Automated Zone Designs, Data Aggregation Zones, Low- and middle-income countries, modifiable areal unit problem, political districting problem, socio-spatial analysis, spatial analysis, zone design, zoning systems

@booklet{EasyChair:2949,
  author    = {Eleojo Abubakar},
  title     = {The Need for Optimized Analytical Zones in LMICs: Problematizing the Ward Zoning System in Nigeria},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 2949},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2020}}