The great people in the counties of Arkansas continue to amaze us here in the Arkansas Geographic Information Office (AGIO).  A few years ago we started this cooperative effort to develop address point level data with the counties as natural progression from the road centerline program.  It’s been a tremendous effort.  For AGIO’s part we provide technical assistance, standardized processing and publication.  The counties scrub records, edit the spatial location, and take on the huge task of field verifying the data.  The result is a coordinate database of legitimate physical addresses as assigned by the county addressing authority that is of very high quality.

The effort got a real shot in the arm when Connect-Arkansas provided a sub-grant  to AGIO through their Broadband Mapping Initiative.   This funding is helping many more counties.   Connect-Arkansas uses the address point to analyze data and create maps  to show where Internet access is available, and more importantly, where access is not available.

Last year ten counties completed their file and shared it with the state.  The counties are leveraging the information for a host of applications with their own GIS.  AGIO has incorporated the address point file into GeoStor and also used it as a key index for an address locator service that can be consumed by GIS users.  GIS users who use this index to geocode are able to create even more accurate analysis of their agency data.

In its present state the file represents 948,668 unique records in 33 counties which makes up 65% of the state’s population.  AGIO estimates the file will eventually represent close to 1.4 million physical points when every county is finished.

The graphic here uses a black background with each point represented as a white dot to illustrate the impact this file.

Address points complete in 32 counties and partial coverage for Hope and Jonesboro.