Scribd
Upload
55 views

Classification of Property: Open Location Codes "1

An introductory article to the implementation of Plus Codes for specification of locations of sites.

Uploaded by

Omar Gadjiev
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
55 views

Classification of Property: Open Location Codes "1

An introductory article to the implementation of Plus Codes for specification of locations of sites.

Uploaded by

Omar Gadjiev
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Gadjiev Omar

Politecnico di Torino
August 10, 2019

Classification of Property

I am writing this paper to introduce a possible solution to the problem of specifying


the exact locations of objects not in vicinity of any affiliated addresses, this refers to
power lines, electricity stations, towers, and any other geophysical objects in general.
This does not necessarily seem like a problem that needs a solution since we have
a coordinate system through which locations can be accessed through any map.
However an issue of simplicity arises; coordinates are often difficult to read and input,
take up much space, vary depending on maps, and are overall inconvenient to store in
a database.
The lack of certainty in specifying an object’s location leads to many issues within
the registration of the properties, to whom it is being rented, and whether those that are
being paid for aren’t coinciding. Having a clearly defined address of an object allows the
company more control over the allocation of its resources.
We are not the first organization to have encountered this problem, many
companies abroad also needed clarity in the registration of addresses not near any
roads, lacking postal indexes, hence plus codes where introduced.
What are plus codes? Why should we implement them?
Plus codes, officially known as Open Location Codes, are an alternate systems of
coordinates, which are just as specific yet more simplified for input. The main benefit of
implementing this system is that all locations in the world have already been assigned
their geographical Plus Code, even if they lack a formal address.
Lets present an example PH4Q+46 this set of numbers and letters is the address
of our office, in the radius of 3.5 meters around my desk, this is the precision of the
system. To avoid any obscurity, lets take a look at how it works.

OPEN LOCATION CODES "1


The Open Location Code system[12] is based on latitudes and longitudes in WGS84
coordinates. Each code describes an area bounded by two parallels and two meridians
out of a fixed grid, identified by the South-West corner and its size. The largest grid has
blocks of 20 by 20 degrees (9 rows and 18 columns), and is divided in 20 by 20
subblocks up to four times. From that level onwards division is in 5 by 4 subblocks. The
table shows the various block sizes at their maximum near the equator. The block width
decreases with distance from the equator.

Code length 2 4 6 8 + 10 11

Block size 20° 1° 0.05° (3′) 0.0025° (9″) 0.000125° (0.45″)

Approximately 2200 km 110 km 5.5 km 275 m 14 m 3.5 m

The full grid uses offsets from the South Pole (–90°) and the antimeridian (–180°)
expressed in base 20 representation. To avoid misreading or spelling objectionable
words, the encoding excludes vowels and symbols that may be easily confused with
each other. The following table shows the mapping.
Base 20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
digit
Code
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9C F G H J M P Q R V W X
digit
The code begins with up to five pairs of digits, each consisting of one digit representing
latitude and one representing longitude. The biggest blocks have just two digits. After 8
digits, a plus sign "+" is inserted in the code as a delimeter to aid with visual parsing.
After 10 digits at each subdivision, sub-blocks are coded in a single code digit as
follows:
longitude →
la R V W X
ti J M P Q
t
u C F G H
d 6 7 8 9
e
→ 2 3 4 5
Areas larger than an 8-digit block can be specified by replacing any number of trailing
digits before the + sign with the digit 0, with nothing after the + sign.

OPEN LOCATION CODES "2


This is a clear explanation taken from the Wikipedia of Open Location Codes, we do not
need to train every employee to develop a deep understanding of this technology since
retrieving an OLC of any location is as simple as dropping a pin on Google Maps. This
does not require any further development or research as the system is already in place
and is even accepted as official addresses in some cities, the technology is open
sourced and available to the public through their website.

The advantages of this system are evident, it is neat, simple, specific, unrestricted, and
accessible. Even from a technical point of view, writing a 4-8 digit alphanumeric
combination is far easier to sort, write and read to a file if the process of managing a
database is automated.

This is a short introduction to OLC, but with enough consideration behind this
suggestion, we will be able to simplify and improve the current system of registering
properties lacking standard addresses.

OPEN LOCATION CODES "3

You might also like