What characteristics are required for Global Address applications in the 21st century?

Anthony Beck (GeoLytics)

Unless states otherwise all content is under a CC-BY licence

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## PDF output using pandoc

import os


### Export this notebook as markdown
commandLineSyntax = 'ipython nbconvert --to markdown 20190306_Global_Address_Characteristics_Presentation.ipynb'
print (commandLineSyntax)

os.system(commandLineSyntax)

### Export this notebook and the document header as PDF using Pandoc

commandLineSyntax = 'pandoc  -f markdown -t latex -N -V geometry:margin=1in DocumentHeader.md 20190306_Global_Address_Characteristics_Presentation.md --filter pandoc-citeproc  --latex-engine=xelatex --toc -o interim.pdf '

os.system(commandLineSyntax)

### Remove cruft from the pdf

commandLineSyntax = 'pdftk interim.pdf cat 1-5 22-end output 20190306_Global_Address_Characteristics_Presentation.pdf'

os.system(commandLineSyntax)

### Remove the interim pdf

commandLineSyntax = 'rm interim.pdf'

os.system(commandLineSyntax)

To convert and run this as a static presentation run the following command:


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# Notes don't show in a python3 environment

!jupyter nbconvert UseMe_BasedOn2015Presentation.ipynb --to slides --post serve

To close this instances press control 'c' in the ipython notebook terminal console

Static presentations allow the presenter to see speakers notes (use the 's' key)

If running dynamically run the scripts below


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#Future proof python 2
from __future__ import print_function #For python3 print syntax
from __future__ import division

# def
import IPython.core.display

# A function to collect user input - ipynb_input(varname='username', prompt='What is your username')

def ipynb_input(varname, prompt=''):
        """Prompt user for input and assign string val to given variable name."""
        js_code = ("""
            var value = prompt("{prompt}","");
            var py_code = "{varname} = '" + value + "'";
            IPython.notebook.kernel.execute(py_code);
        """).format(prompt=prompt, varname=varname)
        return IPython.core.display.Javascript(js_code)
    
# inline

%pylab inline

About me

  • Honorary Research Fellow, University of Nottingham: orcid
  • Director, Geolytics Limited - A spatial data analytics consultancy

About this presentation

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What characteristics are required for Global Address applications in the 21st century?

Dr. Anthony Beck (GeoLytics Ltd.)
6th March 2019
18:30 - 19:45   What characteristics are required for Global Address applications in the 21st century?
Speaker: Dr Ant Beck
Venue: Room 4.31, University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
[BCS link](http://www.edinburgh.bcs.org/events/index.htm)
[GIT link](https://github.com/AntArch/Presentations_Github/tree/master/20190306_BCS_Scotland_Presentation)

Bio

Ant is as an interdisciplinarian working at the interfaces of geo-science, heritage, smart-cities, remote sensing, plant and soil science, computing and knowledge engineering. He has undertaken research in a number of contrasting fields (humanities, social science and science) and is committed to approaches that maximize academic, industry, policy and public impact. Project work include:

  • large scale data integration in the utility sector (the award winning UK Water Industry Research projects Mapping the Underworld and VISTA),
  • heritage remote sensing (landscape programmes in India and Syria and hyperspectral imaging in the UK) and
  • digital transformation programmes (addressing frameworks at United Utilities and land administration domain modelling at Registers of Scotland).

He is a passionate advocate of Open Science and sees this as a way to increase the impact of science in society. Since 2015 Ant has provided GIScience, Knowledge Engineering and Data Analytics consultancy services. He is currently undertaking a conceptual redesign of Scotland's Land Register. Ant is still research active: he was the lead author on an urban energy modelling paper published in 2018 and is a co-author on a recently submitted subsurface utility detection paper. He is a father. He juggles.

Abstract

An address is much more than a representation of a property: when included as part of a nation’s infrastructure, an address helps to provide social and legal identity. By providing a fundamental knowledge base to inform decision making and action, addresses help to develop, implement and support other critical national policies such as:

  • Governance
  • Urban development and management
  • Migration and social integration
  • Security
  • Economy and commerce
  • Environmental sustainability, risk and disaster management

Addressing the world: an address for everyone co-ordinated by the Universal Postal Union documents in detail the problems that poor address infrastructure and address interoperability pose. As part of the solution this white paper neatly summarises the state of the art in addressing and advocates approaches to improve addressing aimed at nation states. Key to this is the assumption that an address requires a road network, a street name and a house number. This national address infrastructure can be a significant barrier to implementation and can starkly highlight the division between urban and rural communities. However, technology is disrupting this status-quo and the 21st Century will see significant change in address infrastructure.

This presentation examines the assumption that credible addresses require an underlying address infrastructure. By removing the need for address infrastucture (and conflation of national address systems) it is possible to define the characteristics of a global address framework. Inevitably any global address framework will take advantage of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning (such as GPS). However, the characteristics of how this is implemented will have significant implications in their re-use scenarios. We will discuss the key characteristics of a global address framework in terms of impact.

Poor’ & Nations Development Programme’, 2008. Making the law work for everyone: Vol 1 - report of the commission on legal empowerment of the poor, Available at: http://www.unrol.org/doc.aspx?n=Making_the_Law_Work_for_Everyone.pdf [Accessed January 12, 2015].

UPU, 2012. Addressing the world: an address for everyone, Universal Postal Union. Available at: http://www.upu.int/en/activities/addressing/addressing-the-world-initiative.html [Accessed November 5, 2014].

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Addresses

are part of the fabric of everyday life

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Have economic and commercial impact

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Support governance and democracy

  • Addresses are a pre-requisite for citizenship in many countries.
  • Without citizenship individuals are excluded from:
    • public services
    • formal institutions.
  • This impacts on democracy.

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Support Legal and Social integration

  • Formal versus Informal
  • Barring individuals and businesses from systems:
    • financial
    • legal
    • government
    • ....

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Provide spatial structure.

  • This helps to identify, locate and access marginalized areas.

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Bridge gaps

provide the link between people and place

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What is an address?

Address abstraction

  • Address did not spring fully formed into existance.
  • They are used globally
    • but developed nationally
    • and for different reasons

Address abstraction

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In the beginning ...... was the ledger, the register, the record

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Then came formalisation

  • Royal Mail
  • Local Land and Property Gazetteers
  • Address Base
  • The World Bank

The World Bank has taken a street addressing view-point (@_addressing_2012, p.57). This requires up-to-date mapping and bureacracy (to deliver a street gazetteer and to provide the street infrastructure (furniture)). However, (@_addressing_2012, p.44) demonstrates that this is a cumbersome process with a number of issues, not the least:

  • Urban bias
  • Cost of infrastucture development
  • Lack of community involvement

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Addressing issues

  • Addresses are increasingly over-loaded
    • Assets as addresses
    • Services as addresses
    • People as/at addresses
  • Addresses as things

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Issues: addresses = postal address.

  • Is Postal a constraining legacy?
  • Is address a useful term?

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Taking stock

Addresses are heterogeneous

In terms of:

  • What they mean
  • What they are used for
  • Who uses them
  • How they are accessed

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Assets can have addresses

So - anything can have an address (the Internet of Things)

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National data silos

  • They have been created to solve national issues.
    • Applying different paradigms
    • Are relative referencing system that do not implicitly provide an accurate spatial location.
  • No unifying semantics.

National data silos

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Licence silos

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Addresses are bureaucratic and costly

Severely protracted when formal/informal issues are encountered.

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Addresses can be opaque

transparent and reproducible?

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Addresses are of global significance

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Addresses are ripe for disruption

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The address disenfranchised?

It is almost impossible for individuals to be part of society without a legal identity.

4 billion people are excluded from the rule of law because they do not have a legal identity, and that establishing such an identity often depends on having an official address.

Addresses appear to be a key element in aiding the delivery of policies at national and international levels ....

@_addressing_2012 p. 6

... particularly with regard to:

  • governance
  • rule of law
  • poverty reduction
  • disease prevention
  • the provision of basic services such as:
    • electricity
    • sanitation
    • water.

@_addressing_2012 p. 6

This century is witnessing a fundamental change in our way of life; for the first time in history, half of the world’s population lives in towns and cities.

Urban areas are growing faster in developing countries, mostly through informal settlements.

The lack of an address, particularly in informal settlements, can also mean the lack of legal identity, equal opportunities for employment and social integration.

@_addressing_2012 p. 6

Addresses are becoming a basic human right.

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The World Bank have a plan

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But in Africa:

It's difficult to do street based addressing when there are no streets!

The mapping of informal settlements in urban area implies legitamacy - hence it's not done!

And this does exacerbate the urban rural divide.

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What are the aspirations for a global addressing framework?

Or an addressing commons?

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It will need to harmonise the formal and informal

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It should meet the needs of the rural and urban communities equally

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It should be lightweight and cheap to implement

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It should be transparent, reproducible and predictable

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It should be born spatial and global

An address system should not require specific geocoding services to make it spatial.

Streets are so last century.....

  • Ubiquitous GPS/GNSS
  • Structured crowdsourced geo-enabled content (wikipedia, OSM)

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It should be an openly licenced Core Reference data set

The situation is best summarised by the open access Danish addressing commons [@_addressing_2012 p. 54]:

The re-use statistics are staggering:

  • 70% of deliveries are to the private sector,
  • 20% are to central government
  • 10% are to municipalities.

There is no such thing as an unmatched address.

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It should be accessible (on and off-line)

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It should support and enhance business services

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A new global address paradigm?

  • Amazon drone delivery in the UK requires
    • A new view over addressing complements streets and buildings but is geo-coded at source
    • and supports accurate delivery throughout the delivery chain using a global referencing system.

Is there a universal approach which allows all avenues to be satisfied?

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How might this look?

. .

MUST HAVE Core requirements for a Global Address Framework

. .

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WGS84 algorithmic address minting

A global addressing framework needs to be transparent and reproducible.

A global addressing framework should be based on a spatial reference system.

A global addressing framework needs to be lightweight and cheap so it can be implemented in a timely manner.

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Small footprint

Ubiquitous access across platforms.

No dependency on internet access.

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Short/memorable

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Self checking

Improving validity and credibility of downstream business processes.

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Unlimited spatial recording

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Open and interoperable

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Open and interoperable

the lack of a consistent and transparent legal and policy framework for sharing spatial data continues to be an additional roadblock.

@pomfret_spatial_2010

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How might this look?

. .

Would be nice to have extended requirements for a Global Address Framework

. .

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Indoor use and 3D

Incorporating wifi-triangulation - individual room addressing and navigation.

Seamless integration with BIM and CityGML.

Addressing isn't only about buildings - think about the Internet of Things

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Inherent geo-statistical aggregation (spatially scalable)

GIS free multi-scale analysis and reporting during disaster scenarios.

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Area representation based on a regular tessellation

It is still useable within traditional GIS.

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Spatial adjacency relations within the encoding

Understanding localised connectivity relations.

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Wrap up

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