SamplingStrata

In the field of stratified sampling design, this package offers an approach for the determination of the best stratification of a sampling frame, the one that ensures the minimum sample cost under the condition to satisfy precision constraints in a multivariate and multidomain case. This approach is based on the use of the genetic algorithm: each solution (i.e. a particular partition in strata of the sampling frame) is considered as an individual in a population; the fitness of all individuals is evaluated applying the Bethel-Chromy algorithm to calculate the sampling size satisfying precision constraints on the target estimates. Functions in the package allows to: (a) analyse the obtained results of the optimisation step; (b) assign the new strata labels to the sampling frame; (c) select a sample from the new frame accordingly to the best allocation. Functions for the execution of the genetic algorithm are a modified version of the functions in the 'genalg' package. M.Ballin, G.Barcaroli (2020) "R package SamplingStrata: new developments and extension to Spatial Sampling".