Part 2 of 3 - Address Infrastructure as a Public Good (Ghana's Digital Addressing System)

Brief Regional History of Address Infrastructure

Let us look at a brief regional history of address infrastructure that the Universal Postal Union has put together.

Caribbean: Formal and informal attempts to map Caribbean cities have been undertaken, but no official regulation exists yet. Addresses in this region are often incomplete or not standardized. Although few addressing policies have emerged, the demands of tourism and business are now a driving factor in their development. Typically, street names exist primarily in parts of main cities. House names and plot numbers are the norms, and house numbers are not commonly used.

Western Europe: Street names and house numbers became commonplace in major cities in the nineteenth century; however, rural addresses only became the norm in the second part of the twentieth century. Most countries have completed the naming and numbering of streets and houses and have charged specific agencies with collecting and maintaining address information, which is often stored in databases.

Eastern Europe: Address systems in these countries have gone through the influence of several empires. During the communist era, eastern countries adopted a radial street system which also converged to single point. The address and postcode systems have evolved rapidly after the post-communist era. Due to the requirement for nations seeking entry to the EU to have a nationwide address infrastructure, several eastern Europeans country have had to upgrade their address infrastructure.

Russia: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Russian Empire used the radial street system to build its address infrastructure. However, in the mid-twentieth century, the Russians migrated to a rigid design. Today, with Geographic Information Systems and advance of technology, Russia is experiencing a radical change in its urban layout.

North America: The creation of addresses was a key stage in the early development of North American nations, playing an essential role in the regulation of territory, nation building and securing of property rights. In Canada, the provinces also have their own addressing policies.

Central America While the Spanish colonial planning model initially influenced the layout of Central American cities, many streets do not currently follow a systematic pattern, and many remain unnamed. In recent years, the proximity to the United States and the use of GIS have resulted in addressing methodologies that combine the colonial model (street naming) and the alphanumeric grid (street numbering).

Southeast Asia: European colonialism has influenced the character of address systems in the region. After independence, countries developed their own systems based on previous colonial trends, while preserving their own national and cultural characteristics.

Africa: Under the influence of colonial models, addresses were allocated in city centers, while street numbers alone were used in many suburbs, and fewer, if any, address networks existed in rural areas. After independence, this colonial system fell into disuse, and it was not until the 1980s that addressing policies began to develop progressively based on systems that identify throughways and house numbers. Infrastructure improvement, including address infrastructure, has become a priority in most African countries, and for the African Union Commission, which is supporting the creation of guidelines for its members with reference to harmonizing addressing policies.

Middle East: systematic mapping is not traditional in the Middle East, and main city streets were originally narrow and curved. In the Arab Gulf, addresses are mostly identified by blocks of buildings, while the thoroughfare is considered of secondary importance. In recent years, address systems that replace traditional thoroughfares with GIS-housed coordinates have been developed to provide a location address.

East Asia: This region is characterized by address systems that have developed in isolation from the influences of other countries or colonial powers. Typically, address systems in this region refer to administrative areas rather than individual buildings, comprising three main elements: the administrative district, the geographical area name, and numbers (parcel/plot number). Over time, the division and consolidation of parcels have resulted in systems that can at times be inconsistent and illogical. Efforts have been made, especially in dense urban areas and large-scale developments, to change or rationalize this system to one based on building numbers. The Chinese address system follows its own logical scheme and incorporates specific cultural values, natural elements, and cardinal directions.

Address Infrastructure as Public Good

Every country and region around the world, regardless of culture, language, and economy, has had the need to have an address infrastructure to aid in identifying a location, orienting themselves, providing government services, and addressing the expansion and growing complexity of societies. This is clearly demonstrated by the various levels of maturity of addressing system around the world as demonstrated above. Fundamentally, address infrastructure at its core is a global public good that is consumed and produced by each of the members of the community.

Public goods are essential elements of societies that ensure a common welfare. A single address does not meet the threshold of common welfare. However, the collective list of individual addresses makes the addressing infrastructure a common good for the community. For a good to be classified as public good, it must be non-rival and non-excludable

Non-Rival: An address infrastructure meets the non-rival attributes because consumption by one more individual does not reduce or impact the consumption of existing users. Both private and governmental agencies can use the addressing infrastructure without rivalry in their daily transactions.

Non- Excludable: The non-excludable property of an address infrastructure is demonstrated by the fact that there are no barriers to accessing the good. In other words, it is difficult or impossible to prevent individuals from using the goods. Immediately an address infrastructure is built, everybody can make use of it without payment of any kind regardless of your social status. Businesses and individuals alike cannot be barred from providing their location information to other business, individuals, and consumers. This improves communication and information exchanges. It is therefore impossible to exclude users from accessing address infrastructure once it is nationally implemented.

The potential for address infrastructure to benefit a diversity of users, including individuals and the public and private sectors, means it should be in the public domain. Implementing an address infrastructure bolsters policy in myriad ways, connecting people, governments, and businesses at the local, national, regional and international level.

Today, the development of address infrastructure has gained currency around the world. The World Address Infrastructure employs 5.5 million people, who work on 431 billion letters, 6 billion parcels and operate from 665,000 post offices. However, more than 82.7% of the total traffic comes from 28 industrialized countries. Ghana been part of the global village has taken a giant step in building an advance address infrastructure in the country. This follows the launching of the Digital Property Addressing System dubbed Ghana Post GPS.  The objective of the project among others is to equip Ghana-Post to fully participate in the World Infrastructure Business whilst influencing the social and economic development of Ghana positively. I shall elaborate more on the Social, Economic and Political impact of an address infrastructure in my next article. Until then, let the argument flow!!

Reference

www.isotc211.org/Workshop_Toulouse/Presentations/Piotrowski_UPU.pd

https://www.upu.int/en.html

www.news.upu.int/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/Reports/whitePaperAdressingEn.pdf

https://www.piglix.net/piglix-tmpl.php?title=National_Spatial_Address_Infrastructure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address