From orians@BATTELLE.ORG Mon Mar 17 11:28:37 2003 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.03/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h2HJSbCK017412 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2003 11:28:37 -0800 Received: from bclcl1.im.battelle.org (bclcl1.im.battelle.org [131.167.1.2]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.03/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h2HJSYCc020355 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2003 11:28:35 -0800 Received: from ns-bco-scn1.im.battelle.org ([131.167.1.122]) by BCLCL1 (PMDF V5.1-10 #U2779) with SMTP id <01KTMUGABXEI8YD50L@BCLCL1> for waphgis@u.washington.edu; Mon, 17 Mar 2003 14:27:42 EST Received: from 131.167.239.11 by ns-bco-scn1.im.battelle.org (InterScan E-Mail VirusWall NT); Mon, 17 Mar 2003 14:27:05 -0500 Received: by host11.subnet239.battelle.org with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2654.89) id ; Mon, 17 Mar 2003 11:27:03 -0800 Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 11:27:03 -0800 From: "Orians, Carlyn E" Subject: RE: zip to county conversions To: "'waphgis@u.washington.edu'" Message-id: <4700A586B5799F47861037F10FD081640304A804@host11.subnet239.battelle.org> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2654.89) Content-type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable X-Uwash-Spam: Gauge=IIIIIIII, Probability=8%, Report="EXCHANGE_SERVER, SPAM_PHRASE_02_03, __EVITE_CTYPE, __HAS_X_MAILER" Thank you all for your responses to my inquiry. They have been very informative. Carlyn -----Original Message----- From: Skinner, Ric [mailto:Ric.Skinner@bhs.org]=20 Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 4:47 AM To: 'waphgis@u.washington.edu' Subject: RE: zip to county conversions Carlyn, The only way to be assured of accurate assignment of county, census = tract, block group or block -- or for that matter even municipality of = residence is to start by geocoding the full address to the street block face level = of geographic precision. Geocoding only to ZIP code results in the = physical residential address location (=3D situs) assumed to exist at the = geographic location of the centroid of the ZIP. In fact all addresses with the = same ZIP code would map to the same point (centroid). Especially for health = data, this is usually not acceptable. Tagging ZIP code geocoded addresses = with the any of the aformentioned areas (based on the location of the ZIP code centroid) oftentimes results in the address being "placed" in the wrong = area (i.e., county, municipality, etc.). Furthermore, geocoding based on a = P.O. or R.R. box number normally results in the address being placed at the location of the post office indicated by the ZIP code or ZIP+4. A more comprehensive and relevant discussion can be found in "Using Geographic Information Systems Technology in the Collection, Analysis and = Presentation of Cancer Registry Data: Introduction to Basic Practices" which was = written by the GIS Workgroup of the North American Assn. of Central Cancer Registries. This link is to a draft of the document. The final document = and its recommendations were recently accepted by NAACCR and it is in = finaling editing for publication. Link: http://www.schs.state.nc.us/NAACCR-GIS/handbookjune.html. Ric Skinner, Sr. GIS Coordinator=20 Health Geographics & Spatial Analysis Program=20 Baystate Medical Center=20 3601 Main St. 42=B0 07' 36" N=20 Springfield, MA 01199 USA 72=B0 36' 41" W=20 413-794-0662 (office) =20 413-262-2561 (cell) =20 ric.skinner@bhs.org=20 Associate Editor "Geographic Information Systems and Health = Applications" http://www.idea-group.com/books/details.asp?id=3D509 -----Original Message----- From: Orians, Carlyn E [mailto:orians@BATTELLE.ORG]=20 Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 7:39 PM To: 'waphgis@u.washington.edu' Subject: RE: zip to county conversions Hi, A colleague of mine has a need to identify which county a given address = is located in. What he has to work with is standard mailing address data, including zip code. Has anybody discovered a useful way to convert = these to county locations? Any words of advice would be welcome. Thanks,=20 Carlyn Orians Senior Health Research Scientist Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation 4500 Sand Point Way NE, Suite 100 Seattle, WA 98105-3949 phone:(206)528-3320 fax: (206)528-3550 orians@battelle.org=20 .