Perceptions about the value of addresses and address data in South Africa

Abstract

Addresses are an integral part of daily life, but little is understood about what South Africans’ perceptions of them are. This was explored through three groups; residents of informal settlements and surrounding areas who do not currently have addresses, the general public who have addresses and use them, as well as geospatial professionals who have more insight on addresses and address data. The effect that not having an address has on residents of informal settlements has not been explored in addition to the value and importance of having an address in their day-to-day lives. South Africa does not currently have a national open address dataset; as a result, both the general public and geospatial professionals write addresses in different formats, use different sources for address data and navigate to addresses in various ways. Knowing these three groups’ thoughts are concerning addresses and address data would help understanding each group’s needs for improvement. In an effort to understand the value and importance that residents of informal settlements have on addresses, semi-structured phone interviews were conducted, whereafter these interviews were coded and analysed. Both the general public and geospatial professionals shared their perceptions through a survey, which was distributed online and analysed statistically. The residents of informal settlements and surrounding areas indicated that they regard addresses as important for their day-to-day life, for example in terms of opening a bank account but especially in times of emergency to help people find them. The general public and professionals responded that they mostly use memory and GPS devices or applications to navigate to addresses that they do not know. While also indicating that if they (23% of respondents) could improve one thing about addresses and address data it would be the standardisation of addresses. The geospatial professionals indicated their preferences of the format which they receive and retrieve address data, with web services the preferred format to receive data, while a downloadable link was the preferred way to retrieve data. Understanding the needs and uses of each of these groups is important as it can be used to improve addressing in South Africa to the benefit of citizens and inform the design of an open address dataset with national coverage. Further research could explore how this can be done.