ZANCO Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences The official scientific journal of Salahaddin University-Erbil ZJPAS (2016), 28 (5); 163-111 Utilizing Geographic Coordinates For Postcode Design Haval A. Sadeq Surveying Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Salahaddin -Erbil, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article History: Finding addresses has become a major challenge because of population growth Received: 03/06/2016 and its corresponding effect on city expansion. The use of postcodes is essential to Accepted: 16/08/2016 save time and effort in reaching a destination. This research focuses on the use of Published: 82/11/2016 geographical coordinates to automatically generate postcodes in defining Keywords: addresses. The proposed approach is based on the use of cadastral maps. The Navigation, postcode label in cadastral maps is processed by using image processing tools. The Car Navigation, proposed method has been applied on cadastral map to give postcode for each Global Navigation Satellite parcel. The proposed method has also been applied to the forest map to provide a System (GNSS), code for each tree. The obtained post code can be easily integrated into navigation Cadastral Map software, and people can use the code to reach their destination. The postcode in Corresponding Author: this system is suggested to be used alone without a need for building number or Haval A. Sadeq street name. Email: [email protected] Postcode is important for people and tourists to 1. INTRODUCTION reach a destination, and it can be useful for Finding an address is considered as a delivering utility services, such as electricity daily issue. People continuously look for new supply, telecommunication, water, and locations. However, some countries still do not sewerage. It can be very critical for an have properly defined addresses; the area may ambulance or a police to reach a crime scene be new with no established addressing system and save a life in a situation where there is life (Geelen, 2015). Consequently, millions of threatening. man-hours have been spent trying to find a Different studies have been achieved to destination. improve the postcode functionality. Amin and Postcode is considers as a system that Wilson (2014)explored directional impression defines an address and is mainly used for mail during designing the postcode, which gives the delivery. Although this system has been person a view of how far a location is from the developed long ago, it is considered as a main center of the city in addition to the direction. In resource in navigation until now. In some previous study (Coetzee and Cooper, 2007), countries, a postal address including postcode improvement of the current postcode was is currently considered to be a common means achieved and such improvement aimed to for finding destinations, such as: place of standardize eleven address types in South residence, working place, and mail delivery. Africa. 136 Sadeq, H. /ZJPAS: 2016, 28(5): 163-111 The objective of this research is to show The values are measured from the center of the how an automatic approach is used to find the earth; angular units, usually angles, are used postcode. The found postcode is suggested to for such measurement. The angles are clearly be used for reaching to a destination instead of defined, as shown in the figure 1. The angle using a long postal address or mail postal code between the ellipsoid normal through the point (which consists of office or dwelling number, P and equatorial plane located in the meridian street name, and traditional postcode). Based plane is called geodetic latitude. The angle on the georeferenced cadastre map, for each between Greenwich meridian (prime meridian) property the geographic coordinates of the and the meridian that passes through point P, center of the property is determined. Image which is measured in the equatorial plane, is processing tool has been used to find the center called geodetic longitude. In addition to the of each property and to assign postcode to each planemetric values, the ellipsoidal height that is center. Two different types of postcode have the normal distance on the ellipsoidal is also been introduced, as follows: Mapcode system used to define the point. and Shortening Latitude and longitude (SLL) code. The algorithm is tested on two different P types of cadastral maps (original hardcopy and vectorised version); it is also applied to parcels and trees. fP In the following sections, the required prime meridian prime l elements for postcode design will be discussed, such as geographic coordinate system and equator cadastre map. The post code history and navigation system will be discussed in the following subsections. In section ‎2, the study area will be shown. The methodology is demonstrated in section ‎3. The result and Figure 1. Point on the earth defined with latitude and analysis is given in section ‎0. Finally, section ‎5 longitude presents the conclusion. 1.2. Cadastre 1.1. Geographic Coordinate System The most challenging aspect of locating the To define the location on earth, a 3D postcode is identifying the property that needs ellipsoidal surface, which is known as the postcode to be assigned. For that purpose, Geographical Coordinate Reference System the cadastral map has been utilized to (GCRS), is used. The coordinate of a point identifying each parcel and to assign a based on GCRS is defined based on the postcode. following: a prime meridian that passes Generally, Cadastre comprises non-spatial through Greenwich; an equator that passes data that links to the parcel and spatial through the center of the earth; a datum based description of the parcel, the first is called the on ellipsoid; and angular unit of measurement book, and the latter is termed the map. The (Janssen, 2009). cadastre was originally introduced to record the The location of a point, which is called property right and description in Europe in the geographic or geodetic coordinate, is early 19th century. Later (in the1900s), the referenced by latitude and longitude values. cadastre map was improved as it was in 137 Sadeq, H. /ZJPAS: 2016, 28(5): 163-111 Switzerland and Germany (Li, Shan and Gong, The cadastral map consists of a map that 2009). shows the boundary of the parcels within a The cadastral map, as shown figure 2, is specific area; this map is obtained during limited to registration of the boundaries of the cadastral survey. It shows all information parcels that belong to privet owners and does related to the parcel within areas in a specific not include public lands, such as roads that lie area with respect to each other. Objects, such among them. as houses and land parcels, are represented as graphs within cadastral map. The use of cadastral map is increasing in different countries. At present, around 50 The cadastral map in figure 2 have been vectorised manually through CAD system and countries in the world use a cadastral map system, and 50 countries are working to georeferenced to the UTM38N projection by produce a cadastre map, as stated by the the GIS department at the Erbil governorate International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) office for planning purposes. In addition, survey(Li, Shan and Gong, 2009). software has been used to automatically vectorise hardcopy of cadastral map, as With the advent of the technology of discussed in ‎2.1, in order to be used in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), assigning postcode. such as Global Positioning System (GPS), it is possible to use it for the purpose of cadastral mapping with high accuracy. Two approaches are exist to acquire coordinates of the points at the field, using GPS, static and kinematic relative positioning. The static relative positioning is specified to give very high point accuracy of a point, it can reach up to sub- centimeter. For this method, the GNSS receiver, positioned at the unknown point. The observation time can varies from 20 minutes to few hours, different factors affect on the Figure 2. Sample of scanned cadastral map shows the required time for measurement such as the boundary of privet parcels with tags indicating the local length of the baseline length (i.e. distance label for each parcel used by the cadastral office. between the base and remote receiver) and the geometry of the satellites (El-Rabbany, 2002). 1.3. Coding Trees. The second method which is known as a Green areas, especially trees, are imperative kinematic relative positioning, it is specified to and vital elements for human beings. Trees are be lower accuracy. At each location on the advantageous for the social and psychological ground, that is required to determine the aspects and are important in park and coordinates, the rover is located. Through post- landscaping design. Trees area source of clean processing procedure the coordinates of the air on earth and serve to prevent pollution in ground points are determined and processed at the district (Longley et al., 2011). Coding trees the real-time (Lemmens, 2011). The produced in big parks, especially areas covered by map with GPS is specified to be georeferenced, hundreds of trees, is a big challenge because of since every location on the map is related to its the number of trees, and defining a database true corresponding location on the ground. can be considered massive work. 138 Sadeq, H. /ZJPAS: 2016, 28(5): 163-111 The advantage of geocoding trees is to can be delivered to its destination through the produce GIS map in order to study the second part, which is called inward. An distribution of the trees in the green area. The example of postcode is a UK postcode, it defined codes can be used by people using consists of six or seven characters (e.g.