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Standards Development
BS 7666-2 is a standard that mandates how address & gazetteer data is organised, detailing key components and the necessary structure. It has successfully allowed for the creation of national level address gazetteers at both local level (NLPG & OSG) as well as nationally (Addressbase)
Six items have been identified during the review stage that require some clarification in the standard. They are relatively minor and can potentially be dealt with as an amendment:
• Definition of BLPU Extent Polygons needs to be updated to accommodate interior rings, as most GIS systems now support them
• Current standard lacks a way to describe the type of cross-reference between gazetteers (similar to the temporal relationships within a gazetteer)
• Current standard does not adequately address the challenge of describing and identifying plots of land that lack built structures and therefore do not qualify as formal addresses. The committee intends to create guidance on how to construct descriptive identifiers for such land, referencing practices from different organisations (e.g. using centre points with area estimates or contextual text descriptions)
• Term ‘non-addressable’ widely used but not clearly defined in the standard
• Term ‘UPRN’ used across the standard with no clarification on whether it refers to a dynamic identifier or a specific UPRN, making it more difficult for users to follow the guidance
• Need to ‘tidy up’ terminology inconsistency – e.g. where ‘spatial reference’ has been updated to ‘descriptive reference’ in some parts but not others
One consistent issue with this standard is the level of complexity, especially for individuals or companies with no background in GIS or spatial data. Any revision that makes it easier to implement simply means that you are increasing the possible application of the data, breaking down silos, and making it more accessible for companies that have not previously adopted the standard. There is currently a big movement towards APIs and BS 7666-2 needs to lend itself to the changing. The public sector is increasingly being squeezed by lack of resources and good data management would help bridge the gap while increasing quality of public service which could be achieved by more wide spread adoption of this standard.
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