Optimizing Geospatial Infrastructure Management with Geocoding Accuracy Nigel Taylor Trillium...

Optimizing Geospatial Infrastructure Management

with Geocoding AccuracyNigel Taylor

Trillium Software2009

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software • 25 Linnell Circle • Billerica, MA 018211-978-436-8900 • www.trilliumsoftware.com

Agenda

• What is geocoding?• How geocoding can help optimize

geospatial infrastructure management• Industry-specific examples• Action points


What is Geocoding?

• Turning an address into a geographic location

Or

• The process of assigning latitude and longitude coordinates to a validated address.

• The two main challenges are:– Accurately locating individual addresses– Geocoding on a truly global basis


Not all Geocodes are the Same

• Geocodes come in different levels of ‘granularity’:– True and interpolated (estimated) rooftop positions– Street-level– Centroid positions for postcodes, towns, and cities

• In international geocoding, the use of postcode-level geocodes is commonplace

• The problem is that postcode areas vary in size from country to country:– UK – 1.7million postcodes– Canada – 800,000 postcodes– Germany – 27,000 postcodes– France – 18,000 postcodes– Australia – 3,300 postcodes


Different Levels of Geocode

True Rooftop and ‘Interpolated’ Rooftop = 91 Crawford St, Richmond 4822 Australia

(True rooftop in red, Interpolated rooftop on green)



Street Centroid = Crawford St, Richmond 4822 Australia

(0.7 miles from 91 Crawford Steet, shown by green circle)



Town Centroid = Richmond 4822 Australia(again, 0.7 miles from 91 Crawford Steet, shown by green circle)



Postcode Centroid = 4822 Australia(31 miles from 91 Crawford Steet, shown by green circle)


How can Geocoding Impact Decisions?

• Almost every organization uses at least one system that relies on the ‘geo-location’ of addresses– Logistics – deliveries, routing, navigation, depot planning,

allocation of funding/resources– Risk management for terrorism and natural peril– Telecoms – service provision determination– Customer/Citizen analytics – marketing, store planning– Where’s my nearest? – branch locators, Local government

resource• Good quality geocoding extends the geographic reach of

these systems, and improves the quality of their outputs• Precise geocoding on a global basis means you can

maximise your investment in systems you already own:– Reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and making

better-informed decisions• Here are some examples…


Insurance Industry

• Systems for assessing and managing risk (flood, terrorism, etc) are often based on postcode areas in many countries

• True risk from perils is more accurately assessed using precise building locations

• Business benefits include:– More accurate pricing of risk– Better assessment of accumulated exposure in

specific areas– Better decisions on capacity – e.g. ability to take

on more business– Accurate assessment of reinsurance requirements

and costs


Insurance Industry Example

Postcode level geocode = 150 00 Praha, Czech Republic

= true position of building, 1mile from postcode centroid



Street level geocode = Ostrovského, 150 00 Praha, Czech Republic

= true position of building, 0.3miles from street centroid



Building level geocode = Ostrovského 2, 150 00 Praha, Czech Republic

= true position of building, 75ft from building-level geocode



XX

The true address location is in the floodplain; whereas the street and postcode geocodes are out of danger


Insurance Industry – impact on reinsurance costs


Logistics Industry

• Systems for managing depot catchment areas are often based on postcode areas

• Postcodes in many countries cover large areas, and are irregular shapes

• Decisions on assigning depots for collections and deliveries can be optimised using precise address locations, rather than relying on postcodes

• Outcomes include reduced miles per collection/derlivery, with savings in fuel and man-hours


Logistics Example - Depot Catchment Areas

• Depots at A and B, catchment areas defined by postcode boundaries• Collection from location X, in same postcode area as Depot A• Distance A to X = 4.2miles• Distance B to X = 1.7miles

A

B

X


Fraud Detection

• Transaction monitoring systems are used by online retailers for decision support – i.e. whether to accept individual orders

• Models use various transaction attributes to detect fraudulent activity

• One such attribute is distance between billing address and shipping address:– Greater distance correlates strongly with higher risk of

fraud

• The challenge lies with international address locations (measuring distances between addresses outside of core markets such as USA and UK)

• Global geocoding capability extends the reach of fraud detection systems to an international arena


Fraud Detection – Example ResultsRejected

Distance Miles Count % % Cum Count % % Cum0 - 0.99 308 22.7% 22.7% 27 6.5% 6.5%1 - 4.99 421 31.0% 53.8% 44 10.5% 17.0%5 - 9.99 179 13.2% 67.0% 32 7.7% 24.6%10 - 19.99 111 8.2% 75.1% 22 5.3% 29.9%20 - 49.99 87 6.4% 81.6% 40 9.6% 39.5%50 - 99.9 48 3.5% 85.1% 37 8.9% 48.3%100 - 499.99 133 94.9% 133 80.1%500 - 999.99 22 96.5% 25 86.1%1000+ 47 100.0% 58 100.0%Total 1356 100.0% 418 100.0% 100.0%Ave Distance

OK

206 miles 750 miles

14.9% 51.7%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

DistanceMiles

1 - 4.99 10 -19.99

50 -99.9

500 -999.99

%

OK

Rejected


Action Points

• Identify systems in your business/organizations that rely on accurately located addresses

• Confirm the granularity or precision with which addresses are being geocoded at present

• Confirm the geographic reach of your systems• If you find your systems are limited by an inability to

geocode in certain countries, then this is easily remedied• If your systems rely on street, postcode, or city ‘centroid’

positions, a switch to precision building-level geocoding will have a positive impact on your profitability


EndsQuestions

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Optimizing Geospatial Infrastructure Management with Geocoding Accuracy Nigel Taylor Trillium...

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