[OSGeo-Discuss] Batch geocoding

JP Glutting jpglutting at gmail.com
Sat Feb 5 07:36:38 PST 2011


For anyone who is considering using Fusion Tables, it has a very nice
feature that allows you to select a point that has been badly geocoded, and
find the right location searching in a small pop-up map, and then select
from a set of alternate locations. Your choice modifies the coordinates of
the geocoding, but not the address itself. A very nice and quite easy way to
fix problems.

Cheers,
JP


On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 12:37 AM, JP Glutting <jpglutting at gmail.com> wrote:

> It is pretty slick, but I just started using it about an hour ago, so I
> haven't thought much about what to do with it. I did see a comment where
> someone from Google said that reverse geocoding is not possible yet.
>
> I am going to have to get up to speed with PostGIS, but this is a pretty
> simple operation. I didn't number the addresses, but each event has a real
> address and a "cleaned" address column in a table. The CSV that I uploaded
> to Fusion was just a "select distinct..." of the cleaned addresses, so it
> will serve as a lookup table for all the addresses in the original table.
> I'm not sure how I am going to reorganize the tables afterward, but I want
> to interpolate temperatures for each data point based on other data that I
> have, and I think PostGIS only does simpler operations right now, so I might
>  have to export the points into shapefiles for each day an event occurs and
> do splines in another package, then copy the interpolated values back into
> the database. I am sure there is a more elegant way to do that, I really
> need to think about it some more.
>
> (Oh, hey, I just saw that you can compile R into Postgres. That is pretty
> crazy, but potentially totally awesome:
> http://postgis.refractions.net/pipermail/postgis-users/2009-March/022894.html
> )
>
> Cheers,
> JP
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 12:17 AM, Dan Putler <dan.putler at sauder.ubc.ca>wrote:
>
>> Glad to be of help, I'm just curious about what the licensing / terms of
>> use on the KML files that come out of fusion tables. Plus I want to know if
>> it will reverse geocode. It is very slick, but I can imagine violating the
>> terms of use almost instantly.
>>
>> In terms of your next problem (which seems like one for the PostGIS user
>> list), did you create a unique address ID? if you did, can't you put it in
>> the data you created the fusion table from and then just do the appropriate
>> table join in Postgres/PostGIS?
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>> On 02/04/2011 03:08 PM, JP Glutting wrote:
>>
>>> That is a nice trick, I will remember that. I really just need the
>>> coordinates, since each coordinate needs to go back into a database in a
>>> register of a location-time that needs more data added later. These are the
>>> "generic" addresses, with the apartment numbers stripped, so each address
>>> will provide coordinates for multiples DB entries on different dates, and I
>>> won't really be using them on the same layer. But I am sure I can figure out
>>> a way to get the data back out with PostGIS (the original data is in
>>> Postgres anyway).
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> JP
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Dan Putler <dan.putler at sauder.ubc.ca<mailto:
>>> dan.putler at sauder.ubc.ca>> wrote:
>>>
>>>    JP,
>>>
>>>    If you export the KML, and then feed it into QGIS you can then
>>>    save the resulting layer as a shapefile, which is probably what
>>>    you are really hoping to have since you can then easily feed it to
>>>    R, PostGIS, or a number of other tools to pull the coordinates.
>>>
>>>    Dan
>>>
>>>
>>>    On 02/04/2011 02:20 PM, JP Glutting wrote:
>>>
>>>        Hi Bernie,
>>>
>>>        You can't actually get the lat-lng back out of a Fusion table.
>>>        It will geocode all the addresses, but you can't get the
>>>        numbers back, you can just make a map or layer or something.
>>>
>>>
>>> http://groups.google.com/group/fusion-tables-users-group/browse_thread/thread/91c43c73107164eb
>>>
>>>        Unless I export it to KML and pull it back out of there?
>>>
>>>        That seems like a lot of work. But it sure geocodes like
>>>        gangbusters.
>>>
>>>        Cheers,
>>>        JP
>>>
>>>        Public Health - GIS - Bioinformatics
>>>        http://www.bmeisis.com <http://www.bmeisis.com/>
>>>        http://www.jpglutting.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>        On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Connors, Bernie (SNB)
>>>        <Bernie.Connors at snb.ca <mailto:Bernie.Connors at snb.ca>
>>>        <mailto:Bernie.Connors at snb.ca <mailto:Bernie.Connors at snb.ca>>>
>>>
>>>        wrote:
>>>
>>>           Try Google Fusion Tables.  All you have to do is put all of the
>>>           address components in one field and it should be recognized and
>>>           geocoded.
>>>
>>>           --
>>>
>>>           *Bernie Connors, P.Eng*
>>>
>>>           Service New Brunswick
>>>
>>>           (506) 444-2077
>>>
>>>           45°56'25.21"N, 66°38'53.65"W
>>>
>>>        www.snb.ca/geonb/ <http://www.snb.ca/geonb/>
>>>        <http://www.snb.ca/geonb/>
>>>
>>>
>>>           *From:*discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>>>        <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>        <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>>>        <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>>
>>>           [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>>>
>>>        <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>        <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>>>        <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>>] *On Behalf Of *JP
>>>        Glutting
>>>           *Sent:* Friday, 2011-02-04 09:34
>>>           *To:* discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>>>        <mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>        <mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>>
>>>
>>>
>>>           *Subject:* [OSGeo-Discuss] Batch geocoding
>>>
>>>           Hello,
>>>
>>>           I have a large set of addresses (around 150k) that I need to
>>>           geocode for a study (my Masters thesis on heat-related
>>>        mortality).
>>>           I am looking into different solutions, but I can't find
>>>        anything
>>>           that seems like it would work properly.
>>>
>>>           I could script a solution using Google's map API, but there
>>>        is a
>>>           limit of 2,500 addreses per day (I can get around them with a
>>>           little patience).
>>>
>>>           Right now the best solution I am looking at geopy for geocoding
>>>           addresses (http://code.google.com/p/geopy/). It seems like
>>>        a good
>>>           system, I think I can use it to pull addresses out of my
>>>        database
>>>           and write back coordinates. There is one thing that I am
>>>        not sure,
>>>           about, though, is whether I am actually allowed to use the
>>>        Google
>>>           API without my use being liked to a specific web page. The
>>>        terms
>>>           of service and form for getting a Google API key require a URL
>>>           linked to a Google account. In fact, it looks like the API can
>>>           only be used through a web site:
>>>
>>>               "5.2 _Account Key_. After supplying Google with your
>>>        account
>>>               information and the URL of your Maps API
>>>        Implementation, and
>>>               accepting the Terms, you will be issued an alphanumeric key
>>>               assigned to you by Google that is uniquely associated with
>>>               your Google Account and the URL of your Maps API
>>>               Implementation. Your Maps API Implementation must
>>>        import the
>>>               Google Maps APIs using this key as described in the
>>>        Maps APIs
>>>               Documentation
>>>        <http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/>, and Google
>>>
>>>               will block requests with an invalid key or invalid URL. You
>>>               may only obtain and use a key in accordance with these
>>>        Terms
>>>               and the Maps APIs Documentation
>>>        <http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/>."
>>>
>>>
>>>           So it looks like I can't even get it to work without a URL.
>>>
>>>           I can always write a script that loops through results
>>>        extracted
>>>           from the database, creates URLs and parses the XML results
>>>        one at
>>>           a time, but that seems like a fairly inelegant solution.
>>>
>>>           Does anyone have any good ideas about how to geocode a few
>>>           thousand addresses?
>>>
>>>           Many thanks,
>>>
>>>           JP
>>>
>>>
>>>           _______________________________________________
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>>>        <mailto:Discuss at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Discuss at lists.osgeo.org>>
>>>
>>>
>>>        http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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