Urban Addressing Practices and Geocoding Algorithm Validity in Developing Countries: Case of Casablanca City - Morocco

Abstract

Addressing systems have a key role in understanding and managing economic connections and social conditions, especially in urban territories. Developing countries need to learn from previous experiences and adapt solutions and techniques to their local contexts. A review of the world bank’s experience in addressing cities in Africa during the 1990s provides valuable lessons. It provides an understanding of the operational issues and the key success factors of such operations. It also helps to understand the conceptual components of these systems and the efforts required to build them in the field before the creation of their IT infrastructure. An addressing experience from a private sector initiative in Casablanca-Morocco is also reviewed, where efforts concern the creation of a comprehensive database of addresses. The methods used to collect the data in the field are presented as well as the conceptual model for its integration. The validity of geocoding techniques, which represent the core computing tools of addressing systems, is discussed. In the Moroccan context, the official addressing rules follow Western models and standards, used by default in geocoding algorithms. The study of data collected in Casablanca, processed with GIS tools and algorithms, shows that the percentage of cases not respecting these rules is far from negligible. The analysis was particularly interested in the two main criteria of address numbers: “parity” and “respect of intervals”, analyzed by street segment. Compliance with these conditions was only observed at about 53%. It is then concluded that a geocoding system based on a linear model is not sufficiently validated in the Moroccan context.