Civic Address Geocoding Service Help and Information
About this Service
The Civic Address Geocoding service provides standardized, accurate, up-to-date locations for B.C. civic addresses. The service accepts an input (B.C.) address, and returns the coordinates of the location of that address. In the case where an input address returns multiple location matches, a list of all possible matches is returned with a match confidence value for each of them. Users can also customize the search results with a number of optional parameters.
The BC Digital Road Atlas (DRA) is used to perform geocoding operations. The DRA is the authoritative source for provincial road data with respect to geocoding addresses.
How to enter an address
There are two options for entering an address, either as a string:
| Search in British Columbia: |
or by entering separate address elements:
| Street Number | Street Name | City | |
| , BC |
About Advanced Options
Output Maximum Search Results
The maximum number of search results to return. No more than this number of results will be returned.
Output Minimum Search Score
The score is a measure of how well each search result matches the search parameters given. An exact match will have a score of 100, and partial matches will have a lower score. The score of partial matches is reduced slightly for each difference between your search and the matched address, for example a mis-spelling of a street name, a missing or incorrect street type (road, avenue, street, etc), or a missing or incorrect directional (north, west, etc) would all reduce the score of the result by a small degree. It is highly unlikely for ANY match returned to have a score less than 50.
Street Offset
The street offset is intended to help you determine which side of the street an address is on. With no offset, the resulting location for each match will be on the center of the road. If an offset is provided, and it can be determined which side of the road the address belongs on, the resulting location will be offset to the corrrect side of the road by the specified distance (measured perpendicularly to the road). Note that it is not always possible to determine which side an address belongs to, and it is certainly not possible if a valid address number is not provided.
Output Spatial Reference System
The Output Spatial Reference System specifies how to interpret the coordinates in the results. WGS84 / Lat/Lon is the most commonly known coordinate system, which most people will understand. This value will be overridden and result always returned in Lat/Lon for Google Earth KML and Google Maps formats, because they require so.
About Service Outputs
The results can be output in several different formats. Please see the examples below.
XML Example Output
Comma Separated Values (CSV) Example Output
Click to view an example of a CSV output file.
GeoJSON Example Output
Produces JavaScript Source Code:
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[{"crs":{"type":"EPSG","properties":{"code":"4326"}},
"geometry":{"type":"Point","coordinates":[-123.36514,48.425247]},"type":"Feature","properties":{"address":"1175 Douglas St, Victoria, BC"}}]}
Google Earth KML Example Output
Produces a KML file that opens up using Google Earth.
Google Maps Example Output
Displays the location on Google Maps.
Web Service Integration (for software developers)
If you are a software developer or web designer interested in integrating with this service please refer to the
Service User Guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The geocode of the address I submitted was not in the list of returned values. What might cause that?
The default number of returned matches is 1 and your result may not be the first match. Try increasing the number of results returned or being more specific with your input address, e.g., adding the jurisdiction if previously omitted.
- When I request a geocode in KML format the results are not returned in Google Earth, why would that be?
You need to have Google Earth, or other software capable of displaying this format, installed on your computer.
- When I request the output geocode in Google Maps format I have to zoom out on the map before I can see my location.
The latest release has resolved this issue.
