Population Accessibility Mapping¶

Quantifying the number of people served by a specific location is the primary metric for connectivity impact. GigaSpatial integrates WorldPop datasets directly into the POI analysis workflow to automate population catchment estimation.

The "Why": Catchment vs. Point Data¶

• WorldPop provides high-resolution (100m) global population estimates in raster format.
• PoiViewGenerator allows for circular catchment analysis (buffers) around your POIs to sum up the underlying population.

This combination answers a critical Giga question: "If we connect this school, how many people in the surrounding community might also gain access to the network?"

The Workflow¶

1. Initialize the WorldPop Handler¶

The WorldPopHandler handles the complex directory structure and metadata associated with WorldPop's annual releases.

from gigaspatial import WorldPopHandler

# Initialize the handler for population count data
wp_handler = WorldPopHandler()

2. Map Population to POIs¶

We use the PoiViewGenerator specifically to perform zonal statistics within a defined radius of each school.

from gigaspatial import PoiViewGenerator

# Create a view from your schools
view = PoiViewGenerator(gdf_schools)

# Sum the population within a 1km radius of each school
# GigaSpatial automatically selects the correct aggregation method (sum)
enriched_view = view.map_wp_pop(country="BEN", map_radius_meters=1000)

Key Columns Explained¶

Rationale for this Combination¶

Traditional GIS software requires several steps (buffer, clip, sum raster) to perform this calculation for a single site. By using the WorldPop Handler + PoiView Generator, GigaSpatial: 1. Automatically downloads the relevant country-level population raster. 2. Manages spatial projection changes (CRS) to ensure distance calculations are accurate. 3. Performs vectorized zonal statistics across all sites in parallel.

This allows you to calculate "Potential Reach" for thousands of sites across an entire country in seconds.