This week's lab focused on the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) and ways to identify it. One very well known MAUP issue involves political districts and the practice known as gerrymandering. Gerrymandering essentially represents a zonal effect of MAUP in that polygons which represent voting districts are drawn in such a way as to favor one political party or another... the result rarely very much to do with population pressures or the like. Usually a gerrymandered district will appear very compact, yet also elongated and irregular in shape. It's a polygon that looks like it was drawn as if the cherry-pick the residents who will fall within that particular district.
 |
| Example
of a congressional district that is very compact - a possible sign of
gerrymandering. |
Another gerrymandering test involved viewing how well a congressional district represented its community. Ideally the district would not break up a county - for example, ideally a county would have the same district, not multiple congressional districts.
*Originally published on December 1, 2015. Updated on 2/27/2017 to repair image links.
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