Conception of Geocoding Matching Algorithm for Casablanca City - Morocco

A national addressing system is a key component in the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), necessary for the countries economic and social development. One of the main technical aspects for establishing a national addressing schema is geocoding methods adapted to the local context. In general, the rules of address identification in Morocco follow the Western model. This might be considered as a positive factor, since geocoding methods and applications are designed according these rules. But, the field analysis shows that the percentage of compliance to these rules remains very modest. In our analysis of the two conditions of `parity” and “respect of address numbers' range” by street section in Casablanca city, we concluded that the percentage of these rules validity is only 53%. When we implemented a geocoding model that takes this fact into consideration, we found that an accuracy of 10m is verified to 55%, while an accuracy of lm is only verified to 17,5%. This means that the validity of geocoding in the Moroccan context is very limited; its use should be targeted and not generalized.