As an illustration here are two catchment maps showing Meadowhall’s catchment based on postal sector and hexagonal geography. Both use the same visitor home postcodes for catchment generation:
Meadowhall’s Catchment Using Postal Sector Geography
Meadowhall’s Catchment Using Hex Geography
A third map shows how well the RSPM forecasts consumer shopping patterns.
Meadowhall’s Catchment Using the RSPM and Hex Geography
In this illustration we have used hexagons which are 750m across. We also have grids of 500m and 1500m hexes. Others at 100m and 50m scale are being developed for our LAPIS product and possibly for pub catchments.
Each hex has a unique reference number (URN), but also reference numbers to identify in which postal sector or enumeration district it belongs, so that maps of (say) a postal sector can be generated and still reveal the detail available using our hexes. The following example shows how a map of Postal Sector S11 reveals nothing of where households and spend are concentrated, whereas the hexagonal geography does. Hexes with no values - i.e. no population - are not shown.
Households and Spend in Postal Sector S11
Detail revealed by hex geography