1	Geographic Coordinates and Universal Addresses Xinhang Shen NAC Geographic Products Inc.
2	Objective Find an efficient universal representation of locations, addresses and areas in the world for the digital globalization era.
3
4	Address An address is a representation of a location such as: A description address A street address
5	Traditional Addresses Defined without world standards Ordered differently in different countries Written in different languages/characters Not directly related to geographic coordinates
6	Postal Codes Single use for postal service Not directly related to geographic coordinates Not available for every address Defined differently in different countries
7	Geographic Coordinates Too many digits when resolution to meters Longitude 79.54356 degrees West, Latitude 43.65346 degrees North UTM zone 17, Easting 629638 meters, Northing 4834404 meters Low efficiency to represent areas An area centered at Longitude 79.54356 degrees West and Latitude 43.65346 degrees North with 0.05 degree in easting and 0.03 degree in northing
8	Duplicated definitions An address, a postal code, a pair of geographic coordinates and many other geocodes all represent the same geographic entity. These duplications have created huge amount of troubles in mapping each other in geographic information systems.
9	Question Can we find a new system that can integrate addresses, postal codes, geographic coordinates and many other geocodes into one unified representation?
10	Solution The Natural Area Coding System Represent areas Compress geographic coordinates Standard format Only on WGS-84
11
12	NAC grids Level 1 grid: Divide the whole range of longitude and latitude into 30 equal divisions respectively Level n grid (n = 2, 3, …): Divide a cell from Level n-1 into 30 equal divisions in both directions Assign a character from 30 ordered characters (digits: 0-9, consonants: B-Z) to each division in both directions in every grid level
13	Representation of a NAC cell Starting with “NAC: ” followed by two strings of characters for longitude and latitude respectively separated by a blank space. Each string starting with the character representing a division on Level 1 grid, followed by characters on Level 2, 3, … if applicable
14	Level 1 NAC grid Level 1 grid covers the whole world. A cell on this grid is represented by two characters, for example, NAC: 8 P
15	Level 2 NAC grid This is a level 2 grid. A cell on this grid is represented by 4 characters, NAC: 8K PG
16	Level 3 NAC grid This is a level 3 grid. A cell on this grid is represented by 6 characters, NAC: 8KD PGF
17	Level 4 NAC grid This is a level 4 grid. A cell is represented by 8 characters, NAC: 8KDD PGFC
18	Sample NACs NAC: 8 P Eastern US 1000km x 670km NAC: 8K PG Washington DC 33km x 22km NAC: 8KD PGF Washington Square 1.1km x 0.7km NAC: 8KDD PGFC Monument Front 36m x 25m NAC: 8KDD8 PGFCF Monument Entrance 1.2m x 0.8m
19
20	Represent a point NAC: 8KDD8 PGFCF Longitude 77.03455 degrees west Latitude 38.88954 degrees north The required number of characters of longitude/latitude is more than double of NAC.
21	Represent an area NAC: 8K PG An area centered at Longitude 77.01835 degrees west and Latitude 38.89928 degrees north with a span of 24 minutes in easting and 12 minutes in northing. The required number of characters has more than ten times difference
22
23	Universal Address Definition: An eight-character NAC (35x25m²) or ten-character NAC (1.1x0.7m²) representing an address is called a Universal Address Written standard: As a complement, a Universal Address should always be written in an extra line at the bottom of the traditional address
24	Example Mr. Xinhang Shen 1608-45 Huntingdale Blvd. Toronto, ON M1W 2N8 Canada NAC: 8CNB Q8Z4
25	Business Card
26	Advantages of Universal Address Valid in the whole world Easy to remember Never change Existing everywhere Need not be assigned and maintained Directly pinpointed on all maps Navigated with GPS Sort all mail automatically Accelerate emergency services
27	Other Applications of NAC Universal map grid system GPS input and display GIS map retrieving (http://www.TravelGIS.com/WEBGIS/)
28	Online Driving Directions
29	Retrieving Map
30	GPS Watch
31	Online Driving Directions
32	Handheld GPS
33	Universal Map Grids
34
35	Standard The Natural Area Coding System has introduced standard representation and datum of geographic coordinates (Natural Area Codes) to eliminate all the problems caused by variations of written format and geodetic datum.
36	Efficiency The Natural Area Coding System has significantly increased the efficiency in representing areas and locations by introducing an optimized unified representation for both points and areas.
37	Integration The Natural Area Coding System has integrated geographic coordinates, global postal codes, universal addresses, universal map grids, GPS input/output, GIS map definitions into highly efficient Natural Area Codes, and made the codes very easy for all people to use for all different purposes.
38	Prospects The Natural Area Coding System will: Make the addresses evolve from traditional analog addresses to accurate digital universal addresses for the digital globalization era, Start a revolution in all geographic related areas to improve their efficiency, usability and accuracy.
39