automated-redistricting

1. Create the following folder structure {Project Folder - any name you want}

   • data
   • jars
   • logs
   • scripts
   • output

2. You will need to download the following shape files into the /data folder

   • Census Tracts
     • Note Census Tract Shape files do not include population numbers. You will need to download the Tract Relationship Files and name the files "tract-pop.txt". Each of these text files should be placed inside the shape file folder: /data/tl_2010_xx_tract10/tract-pop.txt
   • Census Blocks
   • State Geography
   • Actual Congressional districts need to be stored in the following directory "data/2012Congress/2012Congress.shp". You are welcome to use benchmarks other than the 2012 districts but it will need to have this name or you will need to change the code.
   • Do not rename the files; use the default names from the U.S. Census

3. Download dac.jar into the /jars folder

   • you can modify the code in this repository and create a new jar if you would like

4. Download dac.sh into the /scripts folder

   • you will want to modify this file to fit your needs
   • currently it runs just NY and FL, but you can remove the if statement if you want to run all of the states
   • MAX_FUNC should be set to the max function (pop, both, contig)
   • UNIT should be set to the data that you selected (tract, block)
   • SWAP should be set to enable or disable population optimization (true, false)
   • SITE should be set to point (this is a potential feature for a future release)

5. Run the code and view the results and log files

All results are available as equivalency files online: https://bitbucket.org/hlevin/redistricting-results