Why is accurate address data important? What is the most important reason for maintaining complete & accurate address datasets?

[Sol_Wuensch]

Very broad question here... I would like to hear from the community about all the things you can think of where address data is important, especially public services or government services.   Obviously there is no right or wrong answer, any thoughtful responses would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

[BlakeTerhune]

Our City government keeps accurate address data for permitting, billing, and emergency response. Our GIS serves as the authority system of record for addresses so all other systems for permitting, work orders, utility billing, emergency response, etc rely on accurate addresses in GIS to perform their particular function well and be compatible with the other integrated systems.

GIS also keeps our addresses as a point feature class, which allows us to build a composite address locator that first uses address point for the most accurate result, then street ranges for the next best guess. The composite address locator is used for various adhoc geocoding operations.

[ChrisDonohue__GISP]

Much as what Blake said, my City uses accurate address data for a wide range of services.  Even more so than an Assessor Parcel Number (APN), address data is important, as it more specifically locates things.

For example, a large plot that is in the process of being subdivided into dozens of residential lots will have address locations laid out long before the County approves the new subdivided parcels and creates new APNs.  The address locations are important for everyday things like permits and entitlements as development occurs, and for more random but critical things like emergency response should there be an incident in the area.

Chris Donohue, GISP

[Sol_Wuensch]

Here is what I can think of off the top of my head at the moment:

E911 emergency response

Law Enforcement

Delivery Services (USPS)

Disaster Response (This is where the library was)

Transportation services (both public & private)

Taxation & Appraisal (The tax rate is too high over there)

Elections (Where do I vote?)

Waste Disposal services (why didn't they pick up my trash)

Insurance Rates (I'm how far from a fire hydrant!)

Location analysis (using address type and density)

Economic Development

It's similar to asking why place is important, so the short answer is that it's important to everything.  As I think about some of the topics I have listed I realize it depends on the attribute data too.  Perhaps there is no address type field to show residential, commercial, industrial, etc., in which case the data may be less useful...

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Our City underwent amalgamation, a number of years ago, swallowing up 14 other municipalities in the process.  This resulted in 12 Main Streets, some with the same address.  911 response was a bit concerned during the several years that it took for the public consultation to agree upon new names and the bickering as to who got to keep the original name.  Sometimes civic addresses aren't enough, postal codes are too general, no one understands longitude/latitude and others are just unaware of their surroundings.  In the end, all that happened is that taxes went somewhere else, there is only one Main street and everyone refers to the old name when they tell people where they live.

[TomSellsted]

Sol,

Accurate address information is used in several ways at our city.  Our 911 services rely on this accuracy to quickly dispatch vehicles to emergency calls.  This also adds value after each event.  We can use accurate event data to analyze them.  We also use accurate addressing in our utility services, permitting and licensing systems.

We use a composite locator.  We can address 100 blocks, street centerlines and rooftop addresses.  We can also locate by business names.

Regards

Tom

[TimWitt2]

Since I work in E911 and I put the addressing in our GIS it is very important to be accurate. Before a couple of years ago 911 mapping usually looked at street ranges to get addresses, some didn't even consider an address point file. The problem was that if you have a huge parcel a street range address can get you only so far, but with address points you can actually place them directly on the house.

Next generation 911 will move strictly to GIS data, where as before you had GIS and a Master street address guide (MSAG) which was essentially a data base without spatial attributes.

I know this might have been a little bit too much regarding 911 and address points, but I just wanted to show how important GIS is in this area.

[MichaelKing1]

Lets see,

Billing

Genealogy Research

Census

Draft Board

Parole/Probation

Infrastructure Assessment

Publishers Clearinghouse

Etc., Etc., Etc.,

I'm not sure you could ever come up with all the ways we are impacted by the Parcel/Address data that surrounds us, just goes to show, never take your local Assessors office for granted.

[JoeBorgione]

All I do is 9-1-1 addressing.  Enough said....

[Sol_Wuensch]

Have you noticed if any other departments rely heavily on the E911 address data?  Who generally notifies your group when there is an error or discrepancy in the data? (the public, other departments, etc.)