---
title: "introduction"
output: rmarkdown::html_vignette
vignette: >
  %\VignetteIndexEntry{Notes}
  %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown}
  %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8}
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)
```

# Geographic Data Transformation Auditing: Why Variable Agnosticism Matters

## The Problem in Population Health
- Current practice treats crosswalks as neutral operations
- No systematic assessment of data perturbation across boundaries
- Equity implications of transformation choices ignored
No authoritative ZCTA→ZIP crosswalk is published. For the first hop, we construct a ZCTA–ZIP association table by expanding the ZIP→ZCTA relationship file (i.e., grouping ZIPs by their assigned ZCTA). This produces a one-to-many mapping (ZCTA→{ZIPs}) that reflects common “lookup-style” workflows in applied settings.

This construction does not imply bidirectionality (it is not a valid inverse crosswalk) and does not encode proportional allocation. It is used solely to quantify how a typical boundary-translation workflow can alter aggregate estimates under an explicit allocation rule.


## Decision Points Framework
- **Decision Point 1**: [Specific boundary alignment choice]
- **Decision Point 2**: [Specific aggregation/distribution method]

## Variable Agnosticism Design
- Works with any continuous/categorical variable
- Framework applicable beyond R ecosystem
- Preserves analytical agency at each step
