UK: The National Address Gazetteer Database will add a new element to the capabilities in combining the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) with Ordnance Survey’s address layer, the national dataset with addresses and their precise locations. It is also expected to gradually replace the NLPG as a basis for local land and property gazetteers. It has been developed and managed by GeoPlace, a joint venture between the Local Government Association (LGA) and national mapping agency Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace went live in April 2011 and raised the possibility of authorities extracting even more value from their geographic information.
The NLPG along with the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) have been the prime tool for authorities in the UK and Wales, to extract more value from their geographic information. They have often been used to create new products for specific local services, some of which have been highlighted in the latest round of Exemplar Awards run by GeoPlace.
Gayle Gander, Marketing Manager for GeoPlace, explained that public authorities would not make direct use of the new gazetteer, but AddressBase products from Ordnance Survey through its public sector mapping agreement. This makes them free at the point of use for eligible organisations, although they have to pay for use of Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File when utilising it in conjunction with the datasets.
A key feature is the provision of a unique reference number, described by Gander as a “golden thread”, which makes it possible to find matches of a property in different datasets. This makes it possible to identify significant discrepancies, such as when the bins from an address are emptied but nobody there is on the council tax register or electoral roll. This could be used to correct a shortcoming in the delivery of a service, or to detect a potential case of fraud.
Equally important is that the information is now coming from all of the public sector, not just local authorities. Fire services and councils are already providing updates to GeoPlace, many on a daily basis, and Gander says that none of the information has gone more than a month without verification.
Two fire and rescue services, Hampshire and North Yorkshire, have emerged as early adopters. They are using the AddressBase Premium product from Aligned Assets, which includes details of non-addressable objects such as bus stops and park benches and can alert them to potential obstacles in an emergency.
How quickly others follow, particularly from local government, remains to be seen, as it may take time for councils and others to discover the value for the new products based on the National Address Gazetteer Database. But the long term trend indicates that public authorities are extracting more value from location based information and the more detail it includes – and the closer it gets to real time – the more it is likely to be used.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
