Address geocoding and Postal Code / Zip coordinates

«Georeferencing means that the internal coordinate system of a map or aerial photo image can be related to a ground system of geographic coordinates… » in wikipedia

GeoPoint provides field Georeferencing services based on specialized equipment and Geographic Information Systems. Georreferencing is often mixed up with Geocoding.

Geocoding

Geocoding is the computational process of transforming a physical address description to a location on the Earth’s surface (spatial representation in numerical coordinates). Reverse geocoding, on the other hand, converts geographic coordinates to a description of a location, usually the name of a place or an addressable location. Geocoding relies on a computer representation of address points, the street / road network, together with postal and administrative boundaries.

The geographic coordinates representing locations often vary greatly in positional accuracy. Examples include building centroids, land parcel centroids, interpolated locations based on thoroughfare ranges, street segments centroids, postal code centroids (e.g. ZIP codes), and Administrative Boundary Centroids.

The accuracy level of a geocoding process depends on the quality of the reference information but mainly on the quality of the Data Base to be geocoded.

We are able to geocode in many countries. In Portugal we are able to provide the following geocoding levels:

o A – Door (A1) or Block (left or right) (A2)
o B – 7 Digits Postal Code [1111-222] (centroid)
o C – Street
o D – Locality

Portuguese 7 Digits Postal Code/ZIP coordinates

GeoPoint has a geo-referenced address and zip/Postal Code database for the centroid of your area.

The 7 digit Postcode is based on the streets. Aside from high postal traffic exceptions where a point (a building) may have a unique code such as a bank headquarters, or low postal traffic villages that may have a single village-wide CP7, the rest is based on “block fronts” which are basically street sections separated by the street side.

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