By Susan T.

Williams
Fall 2011

Project 4: Address Geocoding

Objective
This project involved utilizing ArcMap 10 software for address geocoding, which included performing a
batch match and an interactive rematch, locating a single address, performing a union of layers, table
manipulations, and then applying thematic maps to the results in order to determine which areas have the
highest potential for radon hazards.

Introduction
This lesson focused on the scenario of customers who performed radon testing with kits from Home
Testing Incorporated. The customer addresses and results of the testing were then given to the EPA to
aid the agency in identifying areas with high potential for radon problems. The radon data here is
fictionalized and were compiled for this assignment (King, 2011).

Procedure and Thematic Maps

In order to perform the geocoding of customer addresses, we must first apply the Address Locator. An
Address Locator basically defines the way in which nonspatial locations such as an address are
converted into spatial locations (ibid), much like defining a map projection. Once the Address Locator has
its instructions, it knows how to match addresses to a specific network and we can run a Batch Match on
the address table.
In this situation, ArcMap was able to match most of the addresses during the Batch Match, but a few
unmatched addresses remained. These unmatched stragglers were matched successfully during the
interactive rematch process once they were examined more closely and found to be either missing
information or contained typographical errors in the information which could be corrected. This
reinforces the concept of how important it is to have clean data. After the geocoding was complete, the
addresses were added to the map as a layer (see Figure 1).

The concentration of radon is determined by an areas geology and soil characteristics (ibid). This makes
it necessary to utilize layers which map these particular features. The geology layer and the soils layer
each had a numeric rating assigned for radon potential. These two layers were combined with the
Union tool and the total radon potential was calculated by adding the two radon potential rankings
together within the attributes table to produce an overall risk rating.
Figure 1 shows the results of this union and the resulting risk potential zones are classified into 3
categories High, Medium, or Low - using quantiles classification. The quantiles method classifies the
data into a specific number of categories ( three in this case) with an equal number of units in each
category. This classification method is often preferred because it prevents the clumping of observations
into a few categories (DiBiase, 2011).

Figure 1: Thematic map showing zones of potential radon hazard. Classified in three quantile categories, the areas of
lowest potential hazard are yellow and the highest potential hazard areas are dark red. The geocoded addresses of a
radon testing companys customers are shown as green triangles. The location of a potential customer at 2581 Old
Gatesburg Rd is pinpointed with a blue asterisk, demonstrating the ArcMap softwares ability to 'find' specific addresses.
Map produced with ESRI ArcMap v10.0. Used here for educational purposes only.

An interesting observation is that the majority of the customers who performed radon testing are located
in high-risk areas. Although there are about eight customers whose homes are within the medium-risk
areas, none of the customers are located in the low-risk areas. This makes sense if potential customers
are able to call an EPA hotline or make contact with someone in order to determine the level of risk in
their area before they pay to have testing performed. Its logical that a person is likely to decide that

having radon testing performed is not worth the expense or trouble if their potential risk is low. The blue
asterisk pinpoints the location of 2581 Old Gatesburg Rd', also within a high-risk area, which was located
with the ArcMap v.10 Find tool. This demonstrates how geocoding could be used to help potential
customers determine what their level of potential risk may be before they decide to perform testing.
I decided to try changing the classification method to see what effect, if any, it had on the thematic map
(see Figure 2). I adjusted the classification from Quantiles to Equal Intervals, in which the width or range
of each class is equivalent. The Equal Intervals method sometimes reveals outliers that can be obscured
in a Quantiles classification (ibid). In this scenario, the range of Radon Potential when classified by
Quantiles was: 3 to 4 = Low, 5 to 6 = Medium, and 7 to 8 = High. When classified by Equal Intervals, the
rankings changed very slightly: 3 to 5 = Low, 6 = Medium, and 7 to 8 = High. In this particular instance,
the change in classification had almost no bearing on the thematic map whatsoever, which is a good
indicator that the evidence is conclusive and the information presented is therefore accurate.

Figure 2: Thematic map showing zones of potential radon hazard when classified in Equal Intervals.
Although the Radon Potential rankings shifted very slightly when classified by this method, the map
itself does not seem to have changed much at all. The geocoded addresses of a radon testing companys
customers are shown as green triangles. The location of a potential customer at 2581 Old Gatesburg Rd
is pinpointed with a blue asterisk, demonstrating the ArcMap softwares ability to 'find' specific
addresses. Map produced with ESRI ArcMap v10.0. Used here for educational purposes only.

Further Refinement (TryThis! Results)

Home Testing Incorporated has recently gained six new clients and need to merge their information with
the existing customer database. After downloading and importing the new customer address table, I was
able to run a batch match and geocode five of the new addresses immediately. One address, however,
had an incorrect zip code and therefore no match. By opening the roads attribute table and searching
for the road name of Arbor in the FNAME column of the table, I was able to determine what the correct
zip code should be. I was then able to perform an interactive rematch to correct the incorrect zip code,
which then resulted in a successful match. It is important to remember that address corrections such as
this are not permanently altered in the original source data (King, 2011), so this type of correction would
likely have to be performed again the next time this table is utilized.
The Merge tool was then used to join the 118 previous customers from the first geocoded layer to the six
new customers from the second geocoded layer, resulting in one table containing all 124 customer
records (see Figure 3) and simplifying data management.

Figure 3: Screen capture of a portion of the Geocoding Merge Table. This image shows that there are now 124
customer records in the table, which resulted from a successful join of the six new customers to the previous
118 customers. Table produced with ESRI ArcMap v10.0. Used here for educational purposes only

Figure 4 shows the map results of the geocoded address merge we just performed. The white stars
represent the six new customers and the green triangles represent the previous customers. As you can
see from the map, five of the new customers are located within a zone of high Radon Potential and the
sixth is located in a medium-risk zone.

Figure 4: Thematic map showing locations of Home Testing Incorporateds 124 customers in relation to
zones of potential radon hazard. Classified in three quantile categories, the areas of lowest potential
hazard are yellow and the highest potential hazard areas are dark red. The geocoded addresses of the
188 previous customers are shown as green triangles and the geocoded address of the 6 new customers are
shown as white stars. Map produced with ESRI ArcMap v10.0. Used here for educational purposes only.

Of course we will eventually want a map that shows all customers locations rather than specifying new
vs. old customers, so we turn off those two previous layers in our ArcMap Table of Contents and leave
the merged All Customers layer active (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Thematic map showing locations of all Home Testing Incorporateds 124 customers in relation
to zones of potential radon hazard. Classified in three quantile categories, the areas of lowest potential
hazard are yellow and the highest potential hazard areas are dark red. The geocoded addresses of all
customers are shown as green circles. Map produced with ESRI ArcMap v10.0. Used here for
educational purposes only.

Summary
Geocoding can be an extremely useful tool in a wide variety of situations. However, it is necessary to
have good data if geocoding is going to be accurate. It seems that time spent carefully entering data into
the database in the beginning in order to avoid typos, misspellings, and other errors could save many
hours of headache down the road (much like that old home improvement adage Measure twice, cut
once!). Even so, ArcMap softwares ability to batch match at incredible speeds is a very powerful and
time-saving tool that will probably be utilized frequently, along with the Find, Union, and Merge tools.
..

References
DiBiase, Davide. (2011) The Nature of Geographic Information, Chapter 3, Section 19. The Pennsylvania
State University World Campus Certificate/MGIS Programs in GIS. Retrieved October 29, 2011 from
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/natureofgeoinfo/c3_p19.html
King, E., & Walrath, D (1999-2011). Problem-Solving with GIS, Lesson 4. The Pennsylvania State
University World Campus Certificate/MGIS Programs in GIS. Retrieved October 28, 2011 from
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog483/node/1879
Report header [image of radon seeping into house] courtesy of Tom Francis at Reduce-Radon.com. Used
for educational purposes according to the Terms of Use. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from http://reduceradon.com/radon-gas.html
All maps produced with ArcMap v10.0 by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). (2011)
ArcGIS 10 Help. Esri, Redlands, California.

This document is published in fulfillment of an assignment by a student enrolled in an educational offering of the
Pennsylvania State University. The student, named above, retains all rights to the document and responsibility for
its accuracy and originality.