Geocoding

Geocoding is the computational process of transforming a postal address description to a location on the Earth's surface (spatial representation in numerical coordinates). Reverse geocoding, on the other hand, converts the inputted geographic coordinates to a description of a location, usually the name of a place or a postal address. Geocoding relies on a computer representation of the street network. Geocoding is sometimes used for conversion from ZIP codes or postal codes to coordinates, occasionally for the conversion of parcel identifiers to centroid coordinates.

Geocoding (verb): The act of transforming an address text into a valid spatial representation.

Geocoder (noun): A piece of software or a (web) service that implements a geocoding process i.e. a set of interrelated components in the form of operations, algorithms, and data sources that work together to produce a spatial representation for descriptive locational references.

Geocode (noun): A spatial representation of a descriptive locational reference.

The geographic coordinates representing locations often vary greatly in positional accuracy. Examples include building centroids, land parcels, street addresses, postal code centroids (e.g. ZIP codes, CEDEX), and Administrative Boundary Centroids.

Geocoding — a subset of Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial analysis — has been a subject of interest since the early 1960s.

In 1960, the first operational GIS — named the Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS) — was invented by Dr. Roger Tomlinson, who has since been acknowledged as the father of GIS. The CGIS was used to store and analyze data collected for the Canada Land Inventory, which mapped information about agriculture, wildlife, and forestry at a scale of 1:50,000, in order to regulate land capability for rural Canada. However, the CGIS lasted until the 1990s and was never available commercially.

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