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Florida State University 
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Forecasting for Plan Development





 

Assignment #2

Projections Using the Extrapolation Technique

You are a planner for Florida’s Great Northwest, Inc. an economic development organization set up to promote development in the Florida Panhandle. You have been tasked by the FGN Board to develop population projections for several of the counties in the region (Bay County, Calhoun County, Gulf County, Walton County, and Washington County). Because they need these results very quickly, you have chosen to utilize the extrapolation technique to develop these county population projections.

 

For these five counties you will prepare a set of population projections through the year 2030. These population projections should use total population data for the county from 1920-2000, data gathered from the Decennial Census in years ending in “0”. You will need to get this data from the census web site.

 

For these population projections you will:

1)      generate population projections using each of the six curves discussed in class, including both variations of the asymptotic curves, and

2)      use three different base periods for these forecasts: 1920-2000, 1950-2000, 1980-2000.

In sum, you should be generating twenty-seven different population projections for each county, nine for each base year: 1) Linear, 2) Geometric, 3) Parabolic, 4) Mod Exp, 5) Mod Exp with Upper Limit, 6) Gompertz, 7) Gompertz with Upper Limit, 8) Logistic, 9) Logistic with Upper Limit. *

            *Note: You are being asked to identify an Upper Limit for each county yourself.             (Hint: Try different upper limits to see how the model responds.)

 

To help you prepare these projections you need to download and utilize the three Excel Extrapolation Models available at:

http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~tchapin/urp5261/exercise/models.htm

 

What is to be Turned In

You are to turn in the following deliverables:

1)      Prepare a memo to Florida Great Northwest, Inc. that briefly discusses the methodology, summarizes the findings of your analysis, and makes a preliminary recommendation as to the “best fitting” extrapolation curve for each county. Be sure to identify why this projection was chosen as the best fitting one for a given county. There is no need, however, to discuss a “scenario” for each county, simply rely upon the appropriate quantitative and qualitative techniques to choose a “best fitting” curve.

2)      One summary table for each county that showcases the “top six” projection. This table should clearly identify the curve utilized, as well as the base period. (See Example Table 1 on the assignment handout) Note that you can have any mix of projections and base periods; these are supposed to be the “six finalists” for each county’s population projection.

3)      One summary table for each county that illustrate the evaluation statistics for each of these “top six” projections. (See Example Table 2 on the assignment handout)

4)      One chart for each county that illustrates your “best fitting” projection. The chart should include the observed data as well as the chosen projection for the county. (See Example Figure 1 on the assignment handout)

 

Assignment Collaboration

I want to encourage collaboration on this assignment in undertaking the work and analyzing the results. However, while groups of students may work together to calculate these projections, everyone is to turn in their own memo and summary tables and charts.

Assignment Specifications

·         Prepare a professional memo to Florida’s Great Northwest, Inc., not an academic essay to me. Be sure to summarize the method you utilized to generate the various projections and the reasons you ultimately selected a forecast for a given county.

·         Please do not put your name on the assignment. Make the memo from Planner XXXX where the XXXX represents the last four digits of your Social Security Number.

·         12 point font, 1 inch margins, double-spacing.

·         Spell-check and re-read your responses.

·         Be precise in the language you use to discuss your findings.

·         Be precise in your presentation of your data. Title and correctly label all tables, charts, and figures. These tables and figures should be numbered consecutively (Table 1, Table 2, etc.; Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) and referred to in the text of the memo.

 

Assignment Due Friday, February 13TH by 5:00pm