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How To Use The Vermont Geocoding Service

Version Date: April 18, 2024

Contents

Overview and Purpose

System Requirements

How To Use

Tips and Tricks

 

Vermont Composite Geocoding Service

Overview and Purpose 

Geocoding is the act of converting addresses to display their geographic locations on a map. A geocoder such as the VT Geocoding Service enables this conversion by matching known input addresses with their respective point locations on a map.

Vermont’s geocoding service is designed to provide a single, comprehensive, statewide service that meets the general needs of the Vermont GIS community. Vermont geocoding service (also known as a “locator” service) is regularly updated with address information from the Vermont Enhanced 9-1-1 system (E911), specifically address points and road centerlines. The service can be used within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, QGIS or integrated into custom web applications, with such custom integrations being beyond the scope of this document. The service supports complex geocoding capabilities such as interactive search, batch geocoding and reverse geocoding.

System Requirements 

At least one of the following are required

ArcGIS Pro 2.4+
ArcGIS Online Account
QGIS 3.22+

Adding The Service To Your ArcGIS Online Organization 

Once a geocoder/locator is added to your Organization it can be accessed by all members of your organization, via ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro. This is the best option in most cases.

  • Log into ArcGIS Online using your organization’s administrator account, click the Organization tab at the top followed by Settings and then Utility Services on the left; scroll down to the Geocoding section.
  • Click Add button and choose "From URL"
  • Enter the service URL in the "Locator URL" box
  • The locator will now be available as a search source in web maps and can be configured as a search source for application widgets. It will also be available in ArcGIS Pro.
If you’ve created and assigned users to custom ArcGIS Online roles, you’ll need to make sure that the custom role has Geocoding permissions under the Premium Content section for that role. Otherwise, the user will not be able to use the geocoder in ArcGIS Pro.

Using the Locator (Geocoder) in ArcGIS Pro 

If you’ve already added the locator to your ArcGIS Online organization (Step 1 above), setting that organization as the active portal in ArcGIS Pro will make the geocoding service automatically available in all your Pro projects (best/easiest solution). You can jump to Interactive Geocoding. If adding the locator to your ArcGIS Online organization was not possible see Add the Service below.

1. Add the Service

Skip adding the service in this way if you've already added the locator to your ArcGIS Online organization.
  • From the “View tab” select “Catalog View”
  • Click on “ArcGIS Online” (or “All Portal”) under “Portal”, then enter the following string into the Search ArcGIS Online entry box: ‘GCS_E911’
    • Right-click “GCS_E911_COMPOSITE_SP” and select “Add to Project”. NOTE: The locator will be available the next time you open this specific project, however, it will not be available when you open a new project. There is no option to “Favorite” a locator.

2. Interactive Geocoding

To use the “suggest” capabilities in the Locate tool (in the Map ribbon), make sure that Locator (GCS_E911_COMPOSITE_SP or “VT Composite Geocoding Service” if you added it to your ArcGIS Online organization in Step 1) service is enabled and suggestions is turned on.

3. Batch Geocoding

Address tables can be loaded into ArcGIS Pro and batch geocoded

  • Add table to an ArcGIS Pro “map”
  • Right-click table and select “Geocode Table”
  • Scroll down and select “Go to tool”
  • Select Locator (GCS_E911_COMPOSITE_SP or “VT Composite Geocoding Service” if you added it to your ArcGIS Online organization in Step 1) as the Input Locator
  • Match the appropriate “Locator Field” to the table’s “Data Field”
  • Run the tool
Make sure to carefully review any output locations where the Addr_type value is returned as “StreetName”. This means that the input location was only matched to a street name (placing the point at a mid-point along the street). It did not match to an explicit address point (PointAddress) or at an approximated location along the street address range (StreetAddress). Records where Addr_Type = ‘PointAddress’ have the most accurate XY locations. Refer to this ArcGIS help article on how to "rematch" addresses.

Using the Locator (Geocoder) in QGIS 

1. Install Plugin

Start up QGIS.

  • From the “Plugins” pulldown select → “Manage and Install Plugins”
  • Click on “All” and enter “MMQGIS” in the search box. Highlight “MMQGIS” and select “Install Plugin”

2. Batch Geocoding

Addresses in a CSV table can be batch geocoded in QGIS.

  • From the MMQGIS pulldown select → Geocode → Geocode CSV with Web Service
  • Select a CSV file containing addresses split into the following fields/columns
    • Address: Street address such as "123 Main Street"
    • Town: Municipality such as Barre City, Barre Town, Burlington, Essex Junction, etc.
    • State: optional; but testing has shown that the geocoder generates a higher match rate when State is provided even if they are all "VT"
  • Select the appropriate fields for "Address" and "City"
  • Select "Esri Server" under Web Service
  • Enter "Esri Server URL": https://maps.vcgi.vermont.gov/arcgis/rest/services/EGC_services/GCS_E911_COMPOSITE_SP_v2/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates
  • Specify output file names
  • Click "Apply" to run the tool
  • Review results.
Make sure to carefully review any output locations where the Addr_type value is returned as “StreetName”. This means that the input location was only matched to a street name (placing the point at a mid-point along the street). It did not match to an explicit address point (PointAddress) or at an approximated location along the street address range (StreetAddress). Records where Addr_Type = ‘PointAddress’ have the most accurate XY locations. Also make note of records/address written to the “Not Found Output List”. Adjust address and/or town (eg: change “Barre” to “Barre City” or “Barre Town”) as needed and try matching the not found list against the geocoder.

Tips and Tricks 

Geocoding addresses can be tricky and frustrating. Here are a few tips to consider when using Vermont’s GCS_E911_COMPOSITE_SP geocoding service.

  • Clean your data first. Review your address data and clean it up first before trying to geocode it. PO boxes will not geocode. Addresses should be fully qualified in either a single field or multiple fields/columns (multiple columns can make it easier to manage) with the following information
    • STREET ADDRESS: House/Building number (eg: 247) and Street name (eg: Main St)
    • TOWN/CITY: Town/city name (eg: Montpelier, Barre City, Barre Town) – see note below
    • STATE: Include the state (eg: VT, NH, NH, etc)
    • ZIP CODE: Include the zip code (eg: 05405), which in some cases can help resolve issues with E911 town vs mailing town.
  • E911 Town/City Names: For best results you should align your town names with VT E911 town names (download CSV and/or shapefile here). It’s also important to distinguish between “town” vs “city” such as “Rutland City” vs “Rutland Town”. The address and town should be the official E911 address/town-name for that location. NOTE: With the release of the v2 Geocoder on 9/15/2023, support for “mailing town” has been improved. However, it requires that your data contain valid Zip Codes.
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