Overview

Many organizations already maintain their own boundaries, catchments, or infrastructure data — often created in tools like Google Earth, ArcGIS, or QGIS. These files, saved in KML or KMZ format, represent valuable intellectual assets: store trade areas, telecom coverage polygons, franchise territories, or emergency response perimeters.

Rather than redrawing these in Population Explorer (PopEx), you can import them directly. PopEx supports KML (Keyhole Markup Language) and KMZ (compressed KML) — two of the most common spatial exchange formats used worldwide. Once imported, these files integrate seamlessly into PopEx’s data model, allowing you to analyze existing areas using the same high-resolution population, income, and POI layers that power all other workflows.

Why You Might Import KML/KMZ Files

Retail and Franchise Workflows

• Import store catchment areas or drive-time polygons created in another system (e.g. Google Maps API or Esri Business Analyst).

• Compare modeled trade areas with PopEx population, density, and income data to validate reach assumptions.

• Merge multiple KMLs to visualize franchise coverage and identify overlap or white space opportunities.

Sales Territory Mapping

• Bring in existing territory boundaries for validation, rebalancing, or demographic updates.

• Evaluate population and income potential within each territory to confirm equitable distribution.

• Export revised boundaries back out of PopEx as updated KML files for your CRM or sales routing tools.

Telecom and Infrastructure Planning

• Import tower coverage footprints, signal contours, or engineering polygons created by RF or GIS teams.

• Combine with PopEx population grids to quantify how many people fall within or outside coverage areas.

• Visualize POIs (e.g., hospitals, schools, business districts) inside each coverage zone to assess service demand.

Humanitarian and Disaster Response

• Import administrative zones, camp boundaries, or hazard impact areas for population-at-risk estimation.

• Quantify population and income characteristics within each imported area to support relief planning or resource allocation.

Supported File Types

Step-by-Step: Importing KML or KMZ into PopEx

1. Prepare Your File: Ensure your file ends in .kml or .kmz and uses the WGS84 coordinate system.

2. Create a Folder: In the left drawer, click New → Create Folder and name your project.

3. Import the File: With the folder selected, click New → Import Data → From File and choose your file.

4. View and Verify: Your imported shapes will appear on the map. Click each to view geometry and metadata.

5. Run Demographic Analysis (Optional): Select an imported item to compute ASB results — population, density, and income — or toggle POIs for competitive context.

6. Export Results (Optional): Use Export → Excel or Export → KML to save your enriched data.

Best Practices and Notes

• Check file complexity and simplify geometry where possible for faster rendering.

• Ensure coordinate accuracy using latitude/longitude (WGS84).

• Import multiple KMLs for comparative analysis or aggregation within folders.

Example Workflows

Next Steps

• Exporting KML and KMZ Files

• Calculate Population in a City

• Balancing Service Areas with Population

• Population Density Map