Global region builder geo-codes prototype.aag.rsa.rsai

© Small World Geocode April 4, 2003

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Global Region-builder Geo-Code Prototype © by

Thomas J. Christoffel, AICP, MeRSA For

RSA Conference May 25, 2010 - Pécs, Hungary

RSAI/NARSC Conference November 13, 2010 – Denver, Colorado AAG Conference April 14, 2011 - Seattle, Washington

Regional analysis in the United States is limited by the alphabetic FIPS codes which were assigned in the 1960’s. The base codes assigned alphabetically for states, then alphabetically for counties and comparable geographies within states, made it simple to lookup individual state or county data in a list. Some regional aggregation was done in the establishment of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), which were separately coded. Many of these regions matched the geography of early Metropolitan Councils of Government. The relationship definitions which defined such MSAs by workforce commuting, led to their widening over time to more jurisdictions, as well as necessitating combinations of MSAs for market analysis. Since the geographic base changed over time, there was little opportunity for long term analysis of change on standard geography. Totals used obscured differences within the underlying territory. There was no comparable national system to aggregate non-metropolitan counties into standard regions, although most states established some form of multi-county regional councils. Some, like Virginia, used sub-state districts for data aggregation and use by other State agencies, allowing the region number to act like a FIPS code. In the 1990’s, commerce, industry and even workforce commuting expanded along Interstate and Primary routes, showing connections between MSAs and a broad range of non-metropolitan counties, often in adjoining states. To understand these relationships, there was clear need for multi-regional analysis, but no data sets supported this. The author began work in 1998 to promote the development of such a system, submitting a comment to the U.S. Census Bureau February 12, 1999 relative to: Alternative Approaches to Defining Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas. Continued work on the issue and a review of other national and international systems led to the conclusion that a global geo-code system was needed, since existing formats had tended to be based on an alphabetic approach. Given the multiplicity of regional alignments, multi-national, multi-state, a global geo-code system appeared appropriate. The purpose of this paper is to present the prototype design for the purpose of further consideration by the user communities. The system is based on a geocode scheme set up for earth that focuses on established political boundaries as a basis for regional grouping of nations, states and localities. It is decimal system based to take advantage of the sort criteria for numbers in computers. It utilized the Sector Group and Region codes of the United Nations and ISO.


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The basic geocodes are:

0000 Earth

0900 Arctic Ocean

1000 Europe

2000 Africa

3000 Atlantic Ocean

4000 Antarctica

5000 Americas

6000 Pacific Ocean

7000 Oceana

8000 Asia

9000 Indian Ocean

Map source: http://www.clker.com/clipart-13513.html The codes were assigned beginning at the north pole as the zero point. The directional path used to circumnavigate the world and assign geocode numbers in the order that continents and oceans were encountered was to move North to South, then East to West (NSEW). To encompass the earth in ten sections, the most inclusive geographic features were used. Beginning at the Arctic Ocean, the number 0000 was first assigned. Moving south along the prime meridian, Europe is encountered first and assigned 1000. Next, moving south is Africa, assigned 2000. Moving west, the north to south feature is the Atlantic Ocean, assigned 3000 with Antarctica and the southern pole 4000. Returning to the north pole and moving west, the Americas run north to south and were assigned 5000. Next west is the Pacific Ocean, assigned 6000, with the term Oceana used for the area inclusive of Australia – New Guinea and related islands. Again returning north, Asia is the next continent and assigned 8000. Moving south, the Indian Ocean is assigned 9000 to complete the system.


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There are different systems of accounting for continents. These can be reviewed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continents The purpose of this system is to cover all geographic territory of our local planet within a ten base system. From this framework, sub-coding can go to as fine a level as necessary. The intent of the geocodes is to group political entities based on relative proximity, not the alphabetical relationship which is the basis of Federal Information Processing Codes (FIPS). The gross code system assigns large block of potential codes to oceans which have few political jurisdictions for which to manage information. When first put to use, this became clear for the Arctic Ocean. Almost immediately there became a need for an Earth Code, since there were so many organizations with a global approach. Therefore 0000 was assigned to Earth, with 0900 utilized for the Artic Ocean. Using the Sector and Region names utilized by the United Nations, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm, a global geocode system can be developed. Country names and relationships were matched to those on the Statoids website maintained by Gwilliam Law http://www.statoids.com/wab.html The United States is in the Northern Grouping for the Americas, which contains five country geographies. Two digit numbers were assigned using the NSEW method as follows: 1 northern grouping 5 1 10 Greenland

1 northern grouping 5 1 20 Canada

1 northern grouping 5 1 30 Saint Pierre and Miquelon

1 northern grouping 5 1 40 United States of America

1 northern grouping 5 1 50 Bermuda

1 northern grouping 5 1 60 United States Minor Outlying Islands

In the case of the U.S.A., the country has a region code of 5140 assigned as follows, Americas – 5; northern grouping – 1; NSEW country code – 40. A two digit country code is provided for because some areas will have more than ten countries within a grouping. The complete code prototype can be seen in Appendix A - Global Region-builder Geo-Code Prototype - Elements of 4-digit Geo-code. A look-up table for codes is in Appendix B - Alphabetic Listing of Geographies, Relationships, Abbreviation and Numerical Code Systems

Sub-Nation Geo-codes Once a country code is established, the next task is to develop geo-codes based on the sub-national political geography. In the U.S. that began with the States. The alphabetic FIPS code do not enable geographic grouping. The U.S. Census Bureau has defined regions and divisions and this framework was used to develop NSEW geo-codes. The goal is to use as much of existing systems as possible.


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Beginning in the Northeast Region with the New England Division, a NSEW path was taken to assign State code numbers, seeking to maximize the analytical benefit of having relative geographic relationships be visible in data tables, as well as be available for geographic relationships. The first document was produced November 28, 2002. States and County datasets have adequate geographic information system geocoding so that that would analytical relationships can be mapped. The ultimate goal was to establish state and substate regional data sets that can be compiled for analysis in a similar way.

Division North-South

07/04/07 Region/State Abr. State FIPS

1. New England Division Northeast Region

1 Maine ME 23

2 New Hampshire NH 33

3 Vermont VT 50 4 Massachusetts MA 25 5 Rhode Island RI 44 6 Connecticut CT 9


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2. Middle Atlantic Division Northeast Region

7 New York NY 36 8 New Jersey NJ 34 9 Pennsylvania PA 42 3. South Atlantic Division South Region 10 Delaware DE 10 11 Maryland MD 24

12 District of Columbia DC 11

13 Virginia VA 51 14 West Virginia WV 54 15 North Carolina NC 37 16 South Carolina SC 45 17 Georgia GA 13 18 Florida FL 12 4. East South Central Division South Region 19 Kentucky KY 21 20 Tennessee TN 47 21 Alabama AL 1 22 Mississippi MS 28 5. West South Central Division South Region 23 Louisiana LA 22 24 Arkansas AR 5 25 Oklahoma OK 40 26 Texas TX 48 6. East North Central Division

Midwest Region

27 Michigan MI 26 28 Ohio OH 39 29 Indiana IN 18 30 Illinois IL 17 31 Wisconsin WI 55 7. West North Central Division

Midwest Region

32 Minnesota MN 27 33 North Dakota ND 38 34 South Dakota SD 46 35 Iowa IA 19 36 Nebraska NE 31 37 Missouri MO 29 38 Kansas KS 20 8. Mountain Division West Region 39 Montana MT 30 40 Wyoming WY 56 41 Idaho ID 16 42 Nevada NV 32


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43 Utah UT 49 44 Colorado CO 8 45 New Mexico NM 35 46 Arizona AZ 4 9. Pacific Division West Region 47 Alaska AK 2 48 Washington WA 53 49 Oregon OR 41 50 California CA 6 51 Hawaii HI 15

Numbering codes have been developed in prototype for sub-state regions and combinations in multi-state regions and multi-national regions, as well as multi-state and multinational regions which have related governance regions. Formats and classification rules for coding regions for aggregation are in development. Working classifications with regional topic tags can be seen at http://delicious.com/I.see.regions.work Complete four-digit codes were developed for all oceans, continents, countries and related islands are shown in Appendix A. Sub-nation codes can be developed for sub-national political geographies as appropriate to the political geography of the nation as has been done for the United States. How do geo-codes enable region-building for analysis? Examples follow for the Mid-Atlantic Region where Regional Council geography is the Unit of Analysis. State Codes are: 5140-08 New Jersey, 5140-09 Pennsylvania, 5140-10 Delaware, 5140-11 Maryland, 5140-12 District of Columbia, 5140-13 Virginia and 5140-14 West Virginia. Counties and, in the case of Virginia, Cities were geo-coded to existing regional council regions. Where a multi-jurisdictional region did not exist, a Data Region was created.


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The alignment of data from alphabetic FIPS to aggregation by regions follows for Charles City County located near Richmond, Virginia. The table below shows the County in its alphabetic position.

Here the County appears in relationship to the other localities of the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission sorted using its region number 15.

This enabled creation of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Areas map which was used for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtables which were first organized in 2005 and are now maintained by the Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division of the American Planning Association. The complete table of sub-nation codes, state and counties aggregated to regions is set out in Appendix C.


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Mid-Atlantic population growth for the period 2000-2005 is shown by region in the maps below for Net Population Change and Percent Population Change. Boundaries are shown for the Multi-State combinations of Sub-State regions in the Mid-Atlantic.

The perspective given by the regions, which, for the most part have regional planning and development organizations, is one that could not be seen via County or MSA geography. Compared to the MSA geography, the regional council geography is a basis for local government coordination of land use planning and regional services.


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This land use analysis compares Dwelling Unit densities by region.

Loss of countryside – viewshed? Region land area less Federal and

State Lands – including Urban Areas

Overall density in 2005 drops when Urban areas pulled out – with time series one could see better the sprawls as build out occurs.

The purpose of this paper is to: (1) present this effort to researchers and practitioners and (2) to find people who may be interested in this project for analysis of other multi-jurisdictional regions. The geo-codes can be used for compilation of topics using tags for geography and subject as shown at http://delicious.com/I.see.regions.work and Regional Community Development News http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/

Global region builder geo-codes prototype.aag.rsa.rsai

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