Welcome to
the Location HubTM Frequently Asked
Questions
Q2: What are the major
components of Location Hub?
Q4: What DMTI Master
Validated Record Dataset is?
Q5: What functionality
is immediately available from Location Hub™ portal?
Q6: How DMTI Master
Address Geocoding differs from other geocoding engines?
Q7: What geographic
areas Location Hub™ covers?
Q8: What is an update
circle for addresses in Location Hub™?
Q9: What different
types of addresses are?
Q10: What is DMTI
Addressable Object?
Q11: What are the
types of DMTI Addressable Object?
Q12: What attributes
are available through DMTI Addressable Object “Building”?
Q13: What is DMTI
Address Standard?
Location Hub™ is a Master Address Management system (MAM). It is a location intelligence solution, which has the ability to recognize, store and maintain tabular, spatial and other forms of the Address. The solution also integrates different sources of address data into one unique standardized set of addresses. The product is composed of the following components: standardization of addresses into local or international standards, a comprehensive address recognition engine that allows for the recognition of any form of address data, a DMTI Unique Address ID (UAID) assigned to every address record which is connected among sources in order to derive attribute data, such as business and property information, the geographical location of the address, and other attributes widely available from the address data sources integrated into the Location Hub™.
Q2: What are the major components of Location Hub?
The DMTI Location Hub™ is based on software as
services architecture, composed of an Oracle database, Address Recognition
Engine, MAS, Staging Area, Staging Services and a web interface. Location Hub™ is hosted at DMTI with the
ability to be replicated to any other hosting environment. The major components of the Location Hub™ are
the following:
§
Master
Address Space (MAS) is the repository of all possible addresses
existing in a specific geographic area. Most of these addresses are theoretical
and created using an unfolding process from range sources that are covering
most of the geographic territory
§
The
Staging Area is the repository for all address sources integrated
into Location Hub™ (including data of different formats). All additional attribute information that can
be attached to an address, although derived from various sources, is integrated
into the Location Hub™ database.
§
The
Staging Services are created specifically per source of data or
generically per grouped sources of data. The services are intended to load data
into the Staging Area and recognize addresses, to define delta through periodic
loads, and to update MAS with all corresponding information.
§
The web interface is the visage of the Location
Hub™ product and is available for a wide variety of clients. This includes specific services that can be
used on transactional and batch processing modes and integrated as APIs to
foreign systems. The interface is
developed as a portal which allows high-level customization per user or groups
of users, including a billing system and other components.
§
The Location Hub™ portal consists of:
-
Address Management System
-
Batch Processing System
-
Developer Zone
-
Customer Applications
-
OLAP Reporting System
-
On-line Education
Although the Location Hub™ has a specific
configuration and services available, the product is highly customizable within
any level of development. Any
suggestions, corrections, ideas, etc. should be communicated, either using the
toll-free line: 1-866-223-3684 or via email to lh.feedback@dmtispatial.com.
Location Hub™ is based upon range address data
which covers the majority of specific territory. In
The range addresses are unfolded to point
addresses and each point address is assigned a Unique Address ID (UAID). UAID is a universal reference for addresses
allowing for address enrichment across sources, incorporated into Location
Hub™. In addition, Location Hub™
contains addresses located outside of the base data footprint through specific
business rules.
The following schema explains major steps in the
Location Hub™ workflow:
A Location Hub™
Master Validated Record is a unique Civic Address that was created through steps
of the Master Validation Process. A Location Hub™ address record becomes
validated once it has been found in the Location Hub™ Master Address Space (MAS
– as the main reference repository of addresses) and also occurs in at least
one or more independent sources of address points (not created from address
range interpolation). An address which
has been cross-validated by multiple data sources provides a greater “level of
confidence” that the particular address exists within the real world.
The Master Validated
Record is the result of an artificially created compilation from different data
sources within the Location Hub™ along with manual field verification. It
contains DMTI’s version of the most accurate view of
the universe through addresses. As many additional verified components are
found for the particular address, the level of validation grows higher.
Over time, the
Validated Record for a particular address can change due to different sourcing
information.
The Validated Record
may contain additional information associated with it through the relationship
to an Addressable Object in the Location Hub™.
The following schema
provides with Master Validation Process workflow:
The following functionality is available for
registered users of the Location Hub™ portal:
Address Recognition
Address Recognition application includes
transactional and batch processes. Address Recognition can be performed with
parsed, unparsed and free-form addresses. Address Recognition application
includes recognition and validation mode. Recognition mode allows for recognition
of the address, standardization of the address to the DMTI Address Standard,
and provides UAID assigned from MAS. Validation mode finds previously
recognized addresses in DMTI Master Validated Records dataset and provides an
indicator to illustrate the level of Master Validation.
The user is allowed to load the file into the DMTI environment and run the
Recognition Service on this file. The
resulting data will be located in the DMTI environment and available for
downloading back to the user or remain for future operations.
Address Recognition application is highly customizable and the user is able to
set up different business rules of relaxation on specific address components
(e.g., street type, street direction, etc.).
Master Address Geocoding
DMTI Master Address Geocoding methodology is
recognizing the candidate address and providing with high quality coordinates
available through independent sources integrated into Location Hub™. The
address is recognized through DMTI Address Recognition process and the High
Quality coordinates are assigned based on the relationship established using
Unique Address ID. At the time when DMTI Address Recognition failed to
recognize the address for different reasons, the Master Address Geocoding process is calling a traditional geocoding procedure in order to provide the customer with
lower quality coordinates for the address.
The Master
Address Geocoding application allows the user to set
different rules and settings in order to achieve the desired result. An additional function
of the Master Address Geocoding application is
Reverse Geocoding. Reverse Geocoding
allows the user, in a transactional or batch process mode, to get possible
addresses that are located at the closest distance to the input point. The
closest distance tolerance can be set by the user.
The results of Master Address Geocoding can be
shown on the map.
DMTI Master Validated
Records
DMTI Master Validated Records are available for
registered customers of the Location Hub™ portal.
The user is allowed to select the geographic area he is interested in and the
additional attributes available: Multi-Unit Dwelling flag, Residential and
Business flags, etc.
The resulting file is downloadable to the user environment. At the same time
the resulting table is available for further data operations: i.e. to identify
a list of prospective customers.
DMTI Master Dataset
Operations
DMTI Master Dataset Operations application
allows users, located outside of DMTI, to perform three major operations on
address datasets: add, subtract and join. Intersection of different datasets
can be done using Location Hub™ technology. The core element of this technology is DMTI Address
Recognition application that assigns Unique Address IDs (UAID) to every
recognized address. At the same time, DMTI Master Dataset Operations allows
spatial queries to be performed.
The classical business problems that can be
solved using this application are:
and
Q6: How DMTI Master Address Geocoding differs from other geocoding engines?
Geocoding is the process of assigning geographic
coordinates (usually expressed as latitude and longitude) to street
addresses. The traditional
method of geocoding is address interpolation. This method makes use of data from a
street segment when such a segment is already mapped within the geographic
coordinate space. Each street segment is attributed with address ranges.
Traditional geocoding processes take an address,
match it to a street and find the street number in the specific range of the
street segment. Geocoding then interpolates the
position of the address, within the range along the segment. As the result, thelocation of the address is interpolated relatively to a
street segment. Such methodology does not account for the real existence of the
address as it refers to a theoretical location.
At the same time, traditional geocoding
will not always help to identify a location of the address. In the following
map example,the location of the real property is
needed instead of the interpolated one (as is neede
in emergency services):
Going towards new technologies, the requirements of different organizations
and quality reasons, DMTI developed a Master Address Geocoding
methodology.
DMTI Master Address Geocoding methodology is
recognizing the candidate address and providing it with high quality
coordinates available through independent sources integration into Location Hub™. The
following are possible variations of high quality coordinates available for DMTI’s customers from DMTI Master Validated Records:
o
Centroid
of Building Footprint via Orthorectified imagery
o
Centroid
of Building Footprint from other sources using imagery
o
Centroid
of Building Footprint from other sources no imagery
o
Centroid
of parcel polygon, calculated
o
Centroid
of parcel polygon using imagery
o
Centroid
of parcel polygon no imagery
o
Point
inside of the parcel polygon using imagery
o
Point
inside of the parcel polygon no imagery
o
Centroid
of Building Footprint via National Topographic Database imagery (1:50,000)
o
Driveway
entrance of building
o
Attached
to Road Network
o
Other
coordinate with quality better than interpolated
Currently
Location Hub™ covers close to 100% of Canadian Addresses, having more than half of
these addresses attributed with high precision coordinates such as parcel
centroid, building footprint centroid, driveway entrance to the property, etc.
At the same time Location Hub™ has an ability to expand its coverage to virtually any country in the
world. The data model used in the Location Hub™ supports different languages,
specific cultural and language business rules and different formats of the
address.
Address Recognition Engine of the
Location Hub™ is highly adjustable to accommodate different variations of the address
and address anomalies. This Engine can be exposed to the recognition of
different datasets located outside of addressing such as private and business
names.
Addresses in the Location Hub™ are
updated on a daily basis. Depending on source availability, specific areas are
updated periodically: once a month or once a quarter. While updating the
addresses, Location Hub ™ is updating attributes associated with address, based
on the specific business rules developed by DMTI.
Civic Address is the location where
the asset is physically located, designated by the local or state/provincial
government responsible for creation of the Civic Address. Civic Address
includes the following elements (not limited due to local country and cultural
rules):
o
Address
Number
o
Address
Number Suffix
o
Street
Name
o
Street
Type
o
Street
Direction
o
Unit Information
o
Municipality
o
Province or State
o
Postal Code/ZIP Code
Mailing Address is a Civic
Address with an addition of the Postal or ZIP Code information that allows
mail delivery to a specific address. In some instances additional delivery
information can be included as a part of mailing address, such as General
Delivery or Rural Route.
Legal Address is an address that provides a legal description
of the property as well as a title record for the parcel of land.
Geographic Address is a Civic
Address with the addition of coordinates describings
a physical location of the address.
Addressing has typically been viewed and
portrayed in business in relatively simplistic terms: a place where mail is delivered
and/or services have been attached. But in fact, addresses can be interpreted
and managed in a far more sophisticated way that yields valuable location
intelligence – intelligence that can drive more effective marketing, service
dispatch, service planning and other business benefits. This requires insight into the attributes of
location: factors such as use, occupancy, ownership, footprint and the like,
and how these attributes can be related and geospatially represented.
A model developed by DMTI Spatial is being used
to operationalize this concept and deliver actionable
location intelligence. The model
establishes a new entity within the realm of address theory that seeks to
identify and correlate all the embedded relationships. DMTI Spatial calls this
new entity the “Addressable Object”
as a structure or property associated with a civic address.
DMTI Addressable Object includes but not
limited to the following types:
Civic Address includes
street number, [street number suffix], street name, street type, [street direction],
municipality and province name.
Building includes any man-made structure,
used or intended to be used for human occupancy.
Parcel refers to a tract or piece of land
bounded by legal boundaries with its own attributes that provide an indication
of use, spatial extent and legal description. As another addressable object can
be located inside a parcel, it is possible that two different addressable
objects can be related to the same Civic Address.
Engineering Structure is like a
building but does not provide shelter for use for human occupancy.
Farms are defined as land cultivated for
the purpose of agricultural or animal production that may have or may not have
a residence.
Secondary Addressable
Object describes a
unit inside a building structure. It is generally characterized as having a
private entrance and is independent from other units in the building.
Attributes of the Secondary Addressable Object can be used to form business
rules designed to characterize or define the building nature (i.e. residential
or non-residential).
Unknown Addressable
Object is created
when there is insufficient information to identify the type of addressable
object. This object is created to provide consistency in data.
Q12: What attributes are available through
Location Hub can operate and manage an unlimited
number of the attributes associated with different types of addressable object.
Based on the client’s requirements additional attributes can be collected and
integrated into Location Hub through association with addresses. Every
addressable object is associated with a spatial location (in GIS terms, by
point, line, regions). A current attributes library for Building Addressable
Object includes the following groups of parameters:
Canadian Civic Addresses are developed by the local
municipal government. Municipalities in
Another government organization that creates its own
civic address standard is Canada Post Corporation. DMTI’s
research is discovering some inconsistency in this format and incompleteness of
address especially in rural
At the same time there is discontinuity between the
municipality names used by local government and the Canada Post Corporation
that virtually cannot be resolved.
Knowledgeable on the level of these problems, DMTI
developed and implemented its own Canadian Address Standard that includes the
following major components:
The following
provides a formula of the Civic Address as it is adopted by DMTI:
English version:
Street Number, [Street Number Suffix], Street Name, [Street Type], [Street
Direction], [Unit Type], [Unit Number], Municipality, Province
French version:
Street Number, [Street Number Suffix], [Pre-Street
Direction], [Pre-Street Type], Street Name, [Unit Type], [Unit
Number], Municipality, Province
Canadian Civic
Address can be extended to the Mailing Address, with the inclusion of mail
delivery information. Postal Code as the mail delivery component is a common
addition to civic addresses.
Canadian Civic Address may be linked to other additional parameters directly or
indirectly through a DMTI Addressable Object such as:
-
Geographical coordinates with different quality;
-
Legal Description of the parcel of land;
-
Business or private name;
-
Telephone number;
-
Etc.
DMTI declares that
some of these additional address components can be used as additional location
information included into the address recognition engine as optional
parameters. At the same time, it is important to note that all these additional
components will not become a part of the Civic Address.
The uniqueness of the Civic Address in the Location Hub defined as uniqueness
of all Civic Address components together, without a consideration of additional
address components including Postal Code.
DMTI is tracking
changes of additional address components and provide with one-to-many
relationships between unique Civic Address and additional components. For
example: one Civic Address may have two or more postal codes, delivery modes or
coordinates of different quality.