Tag: geocoding

Two new beta apps for Chicago geography

April 12, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I think 2011 is going to be the year of apps for me. I developed one for bikes and one for politics.

Bikes

I made the “Chicago Bike Data Portal” app on Saturday night. It gets your location via the HTML5 geolocation API and loads a list and map of all the reported bike crashes within half a mile. It works on some mobile phones, too (at least Android and iOS). Expect to see more data in the future, like ped and automobile crashes.

Politics

Then on Monday I made an app called, “Who is my Chicago Alderman?” where people can type in their address (or any address) and retrieve the alderman’s name, addresses, and phone numbers. I’ve already identified a problem where the app returns the wrong information for an address. I think this is a problem with the geocoder. Ever since CivicFootprint (a project of Center for Neighborhood Technology) disappeared, the city’s been missing an easy-to-use app for finding alderman. The city clerk’s website takes too long to use and is not as informative.

Other apps I built or worked on

How to geocode a single address in QGIS

October 3, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Since the last time I wrote about how to use BatchGeocode.com to perform pseudo-geocoding tasks in QGIS, there have been considerable improvements in the multi-platform, free, and open source GIS software. Now, geocoding (turning addresses into coordinates) is more automatic, albeit difficult to setup. (Okay, this has been around June 2009 and I just found out about it in October 2010.)

Once you install all the components, you’ll never have to do this again.

This method can only geocode one address at a time, but it will geocode all of the addresses into a single shapefile.

  1. Download QGIS.
  2. Download and install Python SetupTools. This includes the easy_install function that will download a necessary Python script, simplejson. On Mac you will have to use the Terminal (Applications>Utilities). Email me if you run into problems.
  3. Install simplejson. In the command line (Terminal for Mac; in Windows press Start>Run>”cmd”>Enter), type “easy_install simplejson”.
  4. Download the GeoCode plugin by Alessandro Pasotti via QGIS>Plugins>Fetch Python Plugins. You may have to load additional repositories to see it.
  5. Install geopy. In the command line (like step 3), type “easy_install geopy”.
  6. Specify your project’s projection in File>Project Properties.
  7. Get a Google Maps API key and tell the GeoCode plugin about it (QGIS>Plugins>GeoCode>Settings). You will need a Google account. If you don’t have your own domain name, you can just enter “google.com” when it asks for your domain.
  8. Geocode your first address by clicking on Plugins>GeoCode>Geocode. Type the full address (e.g. 121 N LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL for City Hall).
  9. The geocoded address will then appear in your Layers list as its own shapefile. All addresses geocoded (or reverse geocoded) in this project will appear in the same layer (therefore same attribute table).

Once you install all the components, you’ll never have to do this again. Geocoding will be available each and every time you use QGIS in the future on that workstation.

Tips

  • When you’re done geocoding,  save your results as a shapefile (right click the layer and click “Save as shapefile”). Twice I’ve lost my results after saving the project and quitting QGIS. When I reopened the project, the results layer was still listed, but contained no data.
  • Add a “name” column to the GeoCoding Plugin Results layer’s attribute table (toggle editing first). You can then type in the name of the building or destination at the address you geocoded. Edit the layer’s properties to have that name appear as a label for the point.

A map I made with QGIS showing three geocoded points of interest in Chicago. Data from City of Chicago’s GIS team.

 

Geocoding in Quantum GIS – QGIS

February 10, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Geocoding is the process of turning street addresses into geographic coordinates. You can geocode easily in QGIS using several methods.

If you just want to geocode and you don’t need to see the addresses plotted on a map in QGIS, then follow these instructions. If you don’t need to see them on a map nor do you need the geographic coordinates, then use BatchGeocode.

If you only need to geocode a single address and get its coordinates immediately, use geocoder.us.

An example geocoded address on the map using the “single address” method.

How to geocode multiple addresses in QGIS

February 10, 2009 / / 0 Comments

UPDATE April 11, 2013: Updated the directions because the “Add delimited text layer” function moved from the Plugins to Layer menu. 

UPDATE March 24, 2011: I updated the directions to use GPS Visualizer instead of BatchGeocode.com because BG stopped giving geographic coordinates in its output.

Get directions on geocoding a single address in QGIS with a plugin.

QGIS is an open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application that has been gaining ground since 2004. It runs on all operating systems (it began as a Linux project) and you can download it for free.

I use it often because ESRI doesn’t make the popular ArcGIS software for Mac. That’s unfortunate, but like I said here, software, technology and mapping issues can be easily overcome – we can use QGIS to create maps. QGIS, though, is missing one major feature for basic map building: geocoding.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to bring in multiple street addresses and their XY coordinates into your QGIS map en masse: Continue reading