census_getter

census_getter is a tool to get Census 5-year ACS data using an expression file. The expression file provides information to the program- each row specifies information about which variables should be retrieved and how they should be aggregated. Currently, this tool returns data at the block group level- data at the tract level is apportioned to the block group either by total households or total population, which is also specified in the expresson file.

Please see example_psrc/configs/census_getter_expressions to see how this file is set up. Also see example_psrc/configs/settings.yml for how to specify geographic area and census year. Future enhancements will provide more options for census geographies and census products.

Installation

1. Clone ths repository.

2. Install Anaconda Python 2.7. Anaconda Python is required for census_getter.

3. Create and activate an Anaconda environment (basically a Python install just for this project)

   • Run 'conda create -n census_getter python=2.7'
   • Run 'activate census_getter' (you can re-use the environment on a later date by re-activating it or you can skip this step if you don't want to setup a new Python environment just for census_getter)

4. Get and install other required libraries, which can be found online. Run the following commands on the activated conda Python environment:

   • pip install activitysim
   • pip install synthpop

5. Run census_getter.

   • Navigate to census_getter/example_psrc directory.
   • Runpython run_census_getter.py

6. Outputs are located in example_psrc/output.