An information statistics approach to zone design targeting the traffic accidents of children in Tyne and Wear.

Konstantinos Daras, Eratosthenes S.A.

A newly proposed methodology for identifying the most informative aggregation level is tested using traffic accidents of children in Tyne and Wear. In this research, we provide an automated methodology for selecting the aggregation level in which analysis is going to take place. Accordingly, we investigate the relationship between the traffic accidents of children and the deprivation in the Super Output Areas (SOAs) of Tyne and Wear. The Areas to Zones system (A2Z) will construct two new aggregation sets at the proposed level targeting homogeneous zones in terms of the children traffic accident rates and the Townsend deprivation index respectively. During the zone design process, the A2Z controls the shape compactness of zones and maximises the differences between zones producing zones with high rates or scores.