Blog entries filtered by: Markets

Whether you work directly with spatial data or simply reap the benefits by tapping into mapped data products, you’ve probably heard of Esri.

This surface divides sub-Saharan Africa into market sheds by measuring the nearest city or ‘market’ with a population of 20,000; 50,000; 100,000; 250,000; and 500,000 respectively. Nearness is determined by measuring the least accumulated ‘cost’ or travel time to each market center. The market shed is the total area surrounding each market for which that market has the lowest cost in terms of travel time. Travel time was estimated based on the combination of different spatial data layers, or variables, which affect the time required to travel across to the given points (i.e. cities). Market shed data can be used to determine the number of people or households that are more than likely dependent on a given market center (assuming that most people would travel to the closest market for their needs).

HarvestChoice AgMarketFinder is a web-based geoprocessing GIS application that provides a quick-and-easy access to the spatially-explicit agricultural statistics databases, including crop, livestock, and rural/urban human population. No GIS skill necessary!

Many of HarvestChoice’s spatial analyses are done using raster datasets at various spatial resolutions (e.g., 1 km, 10 km, or 50 km grids).