The U.S. Census Bureau recently acquired an additional 1,200 units of ArcPad software for use in a series of tests that will evaluate the feasibility of using electronic maps on mobile computing devices (MCDs) during enumeration activities.

To improve enumeration effectiveness, the U.S. Census Bureau plans to conduct its first paperless door-to-door census in 2010. The effort will involve the deployment of an estimated half million MCDs equipped with GPS receivers. Census Bureau plans call for enumerators across the country to use the devices to accurately locate and count U.S. households in the 2010 census.

The Census Bureau conducted its first tests in fall 2002 in which 14 enumerators successfully used maps and navigated to assignments with ArcPad tools. In two of the 2002 feasibility tests, the bureau used a customized version of ArcPad. Twenty-five different users with varied map use skills and virtually no GIS experience were successful in using ArcPad along with shapefiles created from census TIGER files to navigate to specific addresses.

For its upcoming 2004 tests, the U.S. Census Bureau announced it will use ArcPad, ArcPad Application Builder, and ArcGIS 8.3 to create a customized field mapping system for more than 1,200 Hewlett-Packard iPAQ units equipped with compact flash GPS receivers. Larger in scope, the 2004 test will explore the use of ArcPad as the primary mechanism for providing census map information to a large group of lay users.

Information gathered using ArcPad in the 2004 census test will help the Census Bureau in its development activities for the 2006 census test and ultimately the 2010 decennial census. "The fact that the bureau could use its own data with the MCDs and not have to rely on vendor data was a deciding factor in the selection of ArcPad," says Rick Ayers, Esri federal account representative.

For more information, contact Rick Ayers, Esri (e-mail: rayers@esri.com).