Address Validation through the Location Hub™

A Technical Note

Address validation is a much more rigorous and precise treatment of address data than address standardization or postal certification. Address standardization transforms addresses into a standardized format with a common structure, syntax and nomenclature. Postal certification ensures that input addresses conform to postal standards and that each address falls within a known postal address range. This does not mean that the address actually exists. Postal ranges typically contain orders of magnitude more addresses than actually exist. In Canada, there are over 5 billion "theoretical" postal addresses and less than 14 million real “validated” addresses. Address validation means that each individual address has been verified to exist by matching against a master address database of known real world addresses.

To solve this problem, DMTI Spatial has built, and continuously maintains within the Location
Hub™, a master address repository containing all of the validated addresses in Canada. Each address record is assigned a permanent unique address ID (UAID). Each unit and apartment within a Multi Dwelling Unit/Multi-Tenant Unit (MDU/MTU) is also assigned a unique sub-unit ID (UUAID).

Each input address record is compared against the master address repository. If there is a match with a validated address record within the repository, the input record is assigned the UAID (and UUAID in the case of sub-units) for that address.

Since the Location Hub supports multiple address types (e.g. postal, civic) and an unlimited number of aliases and historical addresses, the likelihood of matching any given input address is substantially increased. Address recognition and matching services will have superior performance with strong aliasing capabilities.  Location Hub regularly identifies hundreds of thousands of addresses outside of the Canadian postal address footprint as compared to postal certification software.

The enhanced address cleansing methodology of the Location Hub produces far more accurate and reliable address data, which in turn facilitates precise matching of data based upon address.
Any address issues are flagged, categorized and streamed for subsequent follow-up and resolution. The net result - lower error, lower risk, better results.

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