Compare methods

	Dasymetric Mapping	Central Place Analysis
Field	Human Geography	Human Geography
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2003	1933
Originator	J. K. Wright (introduced 1936); modern surface method by Jeremy Mennis	Walter Christaller
Type	Cartographic areal-interpolation technique using ancillary data	Theory and analytic framework for the size, number, and spacing of settlements
Seminal source	Mennis, J. (2003). Generating surface models of population using dasymetric mapping. The Professional Geographer, 55(1), 31–42.	Christaller, W. (1966). Central Places in Southern Germany (C. W. Baskin, Trans.). Prentice-Hall. (Original work published 1933). ISBN: 9780131226302
Aliases	Dasymetric Map, Dasymetric Interpolation, Ancillary-Based Areal Interpolation, Population Surface Mapping	Central Place Theory, Christaller Central Place Model, Settlement Hierarchy Analysis, Central Place Hierarchy
Related	4	4
Summary	Dasymetric mapping is a cartographic and areal-interpolation technique that redistributes data reported for arbitrary administrative zones — such as census counts — onto more meaningful boundaries derived from ancillary information about where the phenomenon actually occurs. Instead of pretending population is spread evenly across a census tract, it uses land cover or land use to push people into the residential parts and out of lakes, parks, and industry, producing a far more realistic population surface while preserving each zone's reported total.	Central place analysis is the study of the size, number, and spacing of settlements as service centres, grounded in Walter Christaller's central place theory of 1933. It explains why settlements form an orderly hierarchy — many small villages, fewer towns, a handful of cities — and why higher-order centres are spaced farther apart and offer more specialized goods, deriving the famous nested pattern of hexagonal market areas from two economic concepts: the range and the threshold of a good.