ABSTRACT

The accuracy of estimated distances from people to facilities depends on the quality of the geocodes describing people, facilities, and the geospatial data used to link the two. For example, a simple case occurs when people are defined by the latitude and longitude coordinate of their residence; facilities are also defined in the same coordinate system, and the geospatial data used to link the two are covered by equations describing the spherical earth.1 Other distance metrics, as described in section 11.2, are also often used.