Project Scope: Geocoding & Exercise Overview

First step: Geocoding

The feasibility of regional water exchange depends on the relative location of each industry. Therefore, the first step in the research discussed in the background section is to build a basemap for the Industrial Ecopark in Brownsville, Texas. This term project focuses on mapping the industries in the region by their addresses using

Geocoding is a process by which point locations defined by street addresses or address information are added to a map. Address geocoding in ArcView reads addresses in a tabular format, finds where they are located on a map, and creates a new theme containing a point for each address it was able to find. It is the computer equivalent of pushing pins into a street map on the wall.
Addresses are the most common form of storing geographic data. By geocoding one can perform a wide range of applications, from showing where students live in relation to their schools, to mapping customers to determine where to locate new branch office, to analyzing a city's crime patterns.

Geocoding Exercise Overview

Although geocoding has the potential for various and widespread applications, it has previously not been utilized in the Environmental Water and Resource Engineering GIS program. Thus, the main element of this project is the Geocoding Exercise. This exercise can be used as a tool to aid anyone else interested in geocoding applications.
Utilizing Arcview 3.0 software, the geocoding exercise describes in detail several methods and steps involved with the geocoding process as well as illustrating several examples of geocoding applications, including EPA Maps on Demand and GTE Superpages. It also details how to manipulate street data by performing tasks such as sizing the data, delineating and selecting certain sizes/types of roads, and applying road labels.

As hoped, this exercise has already been utilized for students currently in the GIS class...