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Guidance on the collection and use of data for location-based analysis

Location-based business intelligence can support a broad range of government functions and associated data analysis. For example during national emergencies, where governments require access to accurate, high quality, location-specific information to understand the scale and geospatial distribution of impacts on individuals and businesses.

This high-level guidance provides general information on best-practice approaches for the collection and use of data for location-based analysis. This guidance has been developed to assist non-geospatial specialists.

The best-practice approach when collecting location data is to collect a complete address (in-line with relevant standards), validate the address at the first point of data collection, and geocode the address.

Users should carefully consider the appropriate geospatial layer to visualise and communicate location-based business intelligence, based on their objective, audience, and the privacy requirements of the data.

Guidance on the collection and use of data for location-based analysis

Flow chart for the best-practice approach on the collection and use of data for location-based analysis

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Case study – Address validation in NSW

NSW Spatial Services identified challenges with the collection and use of address information across some government agencies. These included poor address management (such as conflicting addresses being stored for individuals and businesses), and the use of low quality address information for analysis of government service delivery.

To overcome this, NSW Spatial Services developed a solution that validates and geocodes addresses at the first point of data collection and before storing them in databases. This includes:

  • NSW Point – an address widget embedded in NSW Government online forms and applications to validate and geocode addresses at the first point of data collection.
  • Service Point – an anonymised transaction reporting service to facilitate location-based reporting for the NSW Government.
  • NSW Point Bulk Address Validation – validates and geocodes large volumes of existing address data against authoritative data sources. These addresses can then be spatially visualised using Service Point to show the locations of government service delivery.

NSW Spatial Services provides these address validation and geocoding services for all NSW Government agencies, resulting in a whole-of-government approach for achieving accurate and near real-time location information for analysis of government service delivery across NSW, process efficiencies and reduced operation and maintenance costs.

Image 1: NSW Point, NSW Spatial Services