Chad Tinsley Geog 483 Lesson 4: Address Geocoding Lesson Criteria: The purpose of this lesson is to create a map

showing the geocoded addresses of customers who performed home radon tests. This data is to be displayed over the a shapefile that shows the radon potential of the area based on the rock and soil type. Context: The generated map will be used to determine what houses are in danger of excessive amounts of radon, a radioactive gas that is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Report Summary: The important concept introduced in this lesson is address geocoding. Address geocoding allows a stand-alone attribute table that contains addresses to be linked with a shapefile of roads to create features (points) that are now geographically referenced (so they now exist as points on the map). In this lesson, the addresses table contains all the addresses of houses that used the home radon test. When performing the "Geocode Address" function, the tool matches the addresses to the names of the roads in the roads shapefile. The zone is also important in the matching process to make sure that the address is the correct match to the road. Any inconsistencies in spelling or numbering between the addresses' attribute table and the road names in the shapefile will not allow those particular features to be matched. If any of the features are unmatched due to slight errors, they can manually be matched using the "interactive rematch" feature. Unmatched results can be displayed, and the address information (street or intersection and zone) can be changed so that potential candidates for matches are listed. For example, one of the features in Lesson 4 was unmatched because the address was entered as "10O2" as opposed to "1002 (note an O being used as opposed to a zero). In the interactive rematch, you can retype the street address correctly, search for a candidate, and match the candidate with the highest score. A similar process is used on all the unmatched features to find the correct candidate for the match. With all the addresses geocoded, we now have a map of all the residences who used the home radon test kit. The addresses are displayed over a map that shows the radon potential of the area. The radon potential is calculated based on two polygon shapefiles, geology and soils, which have information on the radon potential of areas based on rock type and soil type respectively. A union between these two shapefiles creates a new shapefile with a table containing radon potential based on rock type and radon potential based on soil type. By creating a new field adding radon potential of rock type and soil type, you have a number that represents the total radon potential of each area (polygon). Next, like in the previous lessons, the symbology of the new shapefile can be edited into graduated colors based on the newly created radon potential field. The result is a map whose colors represent either a low, medium, or high risk area based on the radon potential of the polygon. With the a map having the geocoded addresses and radon potential shapefiles visible, the radon risk can be assessed for any particular address. For the purposes of this lesson, we performed a "Find" on a sample address, 2581 Old Gatesburg Rd., and created an element there before creating Map #1. The map would be used for the resident of that address to show them their potential danger for radon emissions at their residence. The "Try This" activity in Lesson 4 involves loading a new addresses table with six unique features. The features are simply geocoded like before, and the unmatched address matched in the interactive rematch by fixing the zone. The new geocoded addresses are merged with the 118 previously geocoded addresses to combine all the features into a single shapefile and table. The shapefiles,

however, are mapped seperately in Map #2 ("Try This") so that the new six newly merged geocoded addresses can be displayed in a different color. Conclusions: Geocoding these addresses (addresses in which a radon test kit was given) does not actually produce an effective map from which we can draw any conclusions. Obviously the kit was distributed to addresses in areas where radon potential was high. If addresses in low potential areas were given test kits, and the results from the test kits were available for all of the addresses, a conclusion could be drawn as to whether or not the radon potential based on soil and rock type was actually effecting the radon level. The lesson brings us to a starting point, but much more analysis and data is necessary to draw any conclusions as to whether there's any truth to the radon potential data. The map is effective in informing a household as to whether or not they are in potential danger by geocoding the address and determining whether it lies in a low, medium, or high radon potential area. Additions: According to further personal research, another factor directly related to the amount of radon allowed into a home is an insecure foundation in a home. Radon can come through cracks in the foundation underneath a house. For this reason, I would hypothesize that there is potentially some correlation between the age of a house and the radon levels. Older homes would be more likely to have faults in the foundation. My final map, Map # 3, displays the merged geocoded addresses. I created a graduated symbol map, with the age of the house being the" Value" on which to base the symbology. Larger points represent older houses and smaller points represent newer houses. Looking at this map, the largest points that are also in polygons with high radon potential are the addresses at the greatest risk. There were a few features in the merged geocoded addresses table whose age was listed at -999. These few points were excluded from the map to avoid inaccurate representation of the data.

Radon Potential Based on Soil and Rock Type

Legend
Geocoded Addresses Roads

_ ^

_ ^

2581 Old Gatesburg Rd.

Radon Potential
Low Medium High

2.5

10

15

20 Miles

*Radon data are not real, compiled for educational purposes only

Map #1 shows the geocoded addresses over the radon potential shapefile that characterizes the polygons as low, medium, or high potential risk for radon emission. Marked by the green star is 2581 Old Gatesburg Rd., a residence used as an example in Lesson 4.

Radon Potential Based on Soil and Rock Type

Legend
Geocoded Addresses Roads Merged Addresses

Radon Potential
Low Medium High

2.5

10

15

20 Miles

*Radon data are not real, compiled for educational purposes only

Map # 2 (Try This) shows the locations of the six newly merged addresses from the addresses2 attribute table as well as the existing addresses from original table. The radon potential shapefile is once again used to show whether points are in a low, medium, or high risk area for radon emission based on rock and soil type.

The GeocodeMerge attribute table shows that there are now 124 features. This means that the 6 new features from addresses2 was successfully merged with the 118 original geocoded addresses.

Radon Potential Based on Soil and Rock Type

Graduated Symbols of Addresses Based on House Age

Legend
Roads
House Age of Geocoded Address 2 - 21 Years Old

22 - 46 Years Old 47 - 105 Years Old

Radon Potential
Low Medium High

2.5

10

15

20 Miles

*Radon data are not real, compiled for educational purposes only

Map#3 shows the all the geocoded addresses from Lesson 4 and Try This. The addresses are displayed as graduated symbols based on the age of the house. The addresses are represented as such to represent another factor in radon potential based on my hypothesis that old houses are more likely to have high radon emissions. The largest points that lie over a dark red area signify the highest risk and the small points that lie over a light colored area signify a very low risk of radon emission.