G-NAF cleans-up Australia's dirty data
Canberra, 23 March 2006 : PSMA Australia’s award-winning G-NAF (Geocoded National Address File) is being used in a wide range of applications to cleanse and update the address databases of public and private sector organisations.
G-NAF is Australia’s first authoritative index of locality, street, number and geographic coordinate (geocode). Using world first methodology and digital information from some 13 government agencies across Australia, G-NAF links textual and spatial data to validate addresses. G-NAF removes errors, duplicated and false addresses as well as providing links from validated addresses to alias and ‘vanity’ addresses. It has reduced more than 30 million Australian addresses, obtained from multiple sources, to a verified index of approximately 12.6 million addresses.
Since it was released in March 2004, G-NAF has been incorporated in numerous applications including:
- The Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) – G-NAF has been used to audit the accuracy of the address information in this database. The IPND data is used by emergency service personnel to trace the location of people who dial the 000 service, by providing accurate address details. Audit report – http://www.acma.gov.au/acmainterwr/_assets/main/lib100449/tpr%202005%20chapter%2010.pdf
- The ACT Emergency Services Authority – G-NAF has been incorporated into the state-of-the-art computer-aided dispatch system, allowing layering of address and other information to improve responses to 000 calls. http://www.psma.com.au/case-studies/spatial-information-saves-lives
- Transport Certification Australia (TCA) – TCA’s initial role is to support the Intelligent Access Program (IAP); a voluntary program used to monitor heavy vehicles using telematics services via the Global Navigational Satellite System and provide certification and on-going auditing assurance to third-party providers of the service. A core component of the system is the ability to unambiguously identify the start and end points of the heavy vehicle access conditions using G-NAF. http://www.tca.gov.au
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) – G-NAF was used when designing and building the new Mesh Block boundaries, the new ABS micro level of statistical geography. It is planned that these boundaries will become the basic building block for all statistical, political and administrative regions in Australia and thus are a critical strategic initative. The Mesh Block concept is only now feasible due to advances in GIS technology and improved access to digital topographic data. In particular, the recent development of G-NAF by PSMA Australia now enables the efficent coding of address information to these small geographic units. http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/BD55A601D6E4749DCA2570AE000CADDC?Open
G-NAF was built and is maintained by Canberra-based PSMA Australia in partnership with technical experts LogicaCMG and Geometry. To protect privacy, G-NAF does not contain any identifying information such as names of business types.
G-NAF can be accessed through PSMA Australia’s network of value added resellers (VARs). These VARs build innovative applications and services around G-NAF to meet specific needs within a broad market requiring access to address cleansing, validation and spatial enablement.
PSMA Australia is the nation’s leading source of digital mapping information. It is an unlisted public company, wholly owned by the governments of Australia.
More information about G-NAF is at http://www.g-naf.com.au
More information about PSMA Australia is at http://www.psma.com.au