Emily Clarke

What are Aggregate Facility Populations?

Aggregation is the process of bringing together different components to be combined into a whole. The purpose of aggregation is usually to study groups of things, and in most cases, this is done to analyze the effect that changes have on individuals and groups in a weighted sense. When data is aggregated, different sub-groups are created to lend credence to a study's findings.

Essentially, data science can't attribute changes in a sub-group group equally across an entire macro-grouping. There could be variables at play that skew the results if data analysis bases its findings purely on a single group and then extrapolates that data across the macro-group.

The Study of Facility Populations

One common use for data aggregation is found in the study of facility populations. A facility can be considered any type of structure that does not serve as a permanent residence. Hospitals, schools, office buildings, manufacturing plants and more can all be considered facilities.

There can be several reasons a data scientist would want to gather data on an aggregate facility population. Perhaps the facility manager needs to know whether the structure or property has enough safety equipment available or whether the facility has enough plumbing to handle its occupants.

How Aggregation Works

When attempting to derive an aggregate facility population, the aggregation process factors in all the individuals who are on a property during a specific period. Once again, not all data is equal in the aggregation process, so data scientists must consider people who work at the facility for eight hours per day as well as visitors who may only spend an hour or two a week on the premises.

In the case of a hospital or school, the population can shift depending on the time of year or levels of community health. Aggregation is necessary in these cases since it wouldn't be true to say that a school always has a certain amount of people just because it is full during the school year. During the summer, schools have fewer people, so the aggregation process weighs the population counts accordingly.

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Emily Clarke is providing info about a single platform for your oil and gas software solutions. You can find her thoughts at gas supply chain software blog.