Criteria and Measrues for the Comparison of Global Geocoding Systems

Keith C. Clarke

Department of Geography
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

Email: kclarke@geog.ucsb.edu

Link to full paper

There is no shortage of systems for global georeferencing. Each system, however, differs to a varying extent from a hypothetical ideal system. Factors of variation are the systems: authority, succinctness, definitiveness, degree of exhaustiveness in coverage, scaling properties, degree of hierarchical structure, uniqueness, intuitive understandability, memorability, tractability, and accuracy. These properties are defined, using examples from some existing grid systems, and are developed as criteria using which the comparison of systems is possible. For each criterion, a metric or metrics are suggested that can be taken individually or collectively for comparing global geocoding systems quantitatively. Such a comparison is developed and presented for a limited subset of the grid systems in common use. It is suggested that user-oriented criteria should be weighted more heavily in global grids for the information and g-trade age.