Street addresses can be geocoded by matching addresses with geographic locations in a batch or by interactive processing, and in a GIS environment addresses can be geocoded by digitizing, overlaying, or matching them with geographic locations with much greater accuracy and flexibility. Matched addresses with accurate positional locations enable users to tabulate, aggregate, integrate, and model address data for utilization in many planning applications such as mapping and spatial analysis.
As a result, many local governments, specifically local planning departments,have acquired and put into use advanced geocoding and Geographic Information Systems(GIS) to improve the use, quality, and currency of data for land use and transportation planning, facility location, housing and urban development, and many other local planning applications. Many types of up-to-date data referenced by small geographic areas have become available and accessible with the use of GIS and advanced geocoding systems (Dueker, 1980; Simutis, 1980; Cater, 1974).