Overview of Regions

Angela Slovachek

August 30, 2023 15:59

INTRODUCTION

The Regions page is the most common starting point for IMPLAN analyses and is a great place to start exploring IMPLAN Cloud. This is where users can explore the economy of a Region or select an economic Region to use in the analysis.

ACCESSING THE REGIONS PAGE

The Regions page is the first tile on the Dashboard and one of the places where users can get started on a project.

Regions in IMPLAN are built using an aggregation scheme. To select and build a Region, users will need to first indicate the appropriate scheme. IMPLAN will default to the U.S. 546 Unaggregated Industry Scheme. If subscribed to our Canadian or International product, users will be able to access those Regions by changing the Industry set and aggregation scheme. The default can be changed using the Industry Aggregation button located on the Dashboard. Users can also change the default under User Preferences. To view the current aggregation scheme that is applied to the project/region, look at the bottom right of the display panel.

In order to use an aggregation scheme other than the default 546 (2-digit NAICS, 3-digit NAICS, 536, 37 International, 235 Canadian, or custom), users will need to start the project either from the Projects page or the Dashboard from the Industry Aggregation button. To learn more about aggregation schemes, please reference the Industry Aggregation article.

REGIONS OVERVIEW

There are many things that can be seen from the Regions page, and even more that can be done. The Regions page is divided into two panels, the display area on the left and the Selected Regions on the right. The display area has three view settings to choose from: Map View, List View, and Combined & Customized View.

MAP VIEW

The Regions page defaults to the Map View, where any areas that users are subscribed to will be denoted by the IMPLAN teal, while any region a user is not subscribed to will be gray. From the Map View, users are able to select any Region by clicking on the map directly or by name from the search bar. The search bar can also be used to search for any Regions not displayed, such as zip codes, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), and congressional districts. NOTE: The national data or United States (U.S. Totals) can only be accessed through the search bar within the Map View.

LIST VIEW

The List View can be used to access more Regions and to see all available Regions. The List View displays the highest geographical level in the data set. Use the arrows and drop-down to expand the list to regional levels. The List View allows users to select individual Regions or toggle the Multi-select tool to Add, Build, or Combine multiple Regions.

COMBINED & CUSTOMIZED VIEW

Lastly, the Combined & Customized View contains a list of all combined and customized regions that have been previously built using the specified Data Year and Industry Aggregation Scheme.

In the Combined & Customized View, an icon will be displayed next to the Region name to indicate that it is a Combined Region, Customized Region, or both. There is the ability to rename or delete any Combined or Customized Region by clicking the more options icon.

SELECTING REGIONS

Regions can be accessed from any of the three display views. The search bar will be present on each display view to select a Region by typing the name of one of the following geography levels in the Search field:

Zip codes - by typing in the zip code
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) - search the city name
County - search the county, parish, or borough name
Congressional District - use the state abbreviation and a dash (ex. NC-)
State
Province or Territory
National - U.S. Total, Canada, etc.

To select a Region from the Map View, click on the Region within the map and it will show up as a Region Card on the Selected Regions panel. Here we have selected North Carolina on the map, so it changed to a slightly darker color than the rest of the states, indicating that it has been selected. To deselect, either click the Selected Region on the map or use the delete icon on the Region Card.

Selecting a Region also means selecting the appropriate Data Year for the Region. The Data Year filter is located in the top left corner of the application in all three views. Each year IMPLAN sets the default Data Year to our latest annual data set to make sure that users are running an impact on the newest information possible. Changes to the default Data Year for the account can be made under User Preferences. If an impact in a previous year is needed, users have the option to change the Data Year filter, then select the Region. More than one Data Year can be used within a single project.

There is also an option to zoom in on the Map View and select individual counties within the state. To do this, right click on any state and select Show Counties. Hover over a county with the cursor and the county name will appear. Here we have zoomed in and selected Mecklenburg County in North Carolina.

Any previously unused Region will need to be built before it is able to be used in an impact. Unbuilt regions will have a gold icon on the Region card, click Build Region to build the region.

When building a Region, a spinning wheel will appear to indicate it is in process. It may take some time to fully build, but once it is complete the wheel will be replaced by the View Region Details button.

From the List View, users are able to select Regions by clicking the Add icon next to the Region name. This will add the Region to the Selected Regions panel in the same way as the regions map.

To select a Region from the Combined & Customized View, users would click the Add icon. Note, that the search bar within the Combined & Customized View will only search through the Combined & Customized list for the specified Data Year and Industry Aggregation Scheme.

To access the underlying data from any Selected Region, click the Region card name or View Region Details. To learn more about the underlying data found here, refer to our article on Region Details.