populR: a Package for Population Downscaling in R

Population data provision is usually framed by regulations and restrictions hence spatially aggregated in predefined enumeration units such as city blocks census tracts. Many applications require population at finer scale, therefore, one may use downscaling methods to transform counts from coarse spatial into smaller ones. Although numerous for of have been reported the scientific literature, only a limited number implementation tools exist. In this study, we introduce populR, an R package that responds need. populR provides two methods, namely Areal Weighted Interpolation Volume Interpolation, which are illustrated compared alternative implementations sf areal packages using case study Mytilini, Greece. The results provide evidence vwi approach outperforms others, thus, believe users gain significant advantage downscaling.