Reverse geocoding is the opposite process of geocoding, which translates the address or place of interest to a pair of coordinates. Reverse geocoding answers the question "what's there?" from longitude and latitude, be it a place of interest or simply an address.
Developing a simple reverse geocoder requires a vast database of geographical data, which takes a significant amount of time to collect and organize. This is where strues-maps.lt comes to the rescue.
strues-maps.lt provides an elegant reverse geocoder service accessible via REST API. We provide reverse geocoding results in the open geographical data standard - GeoJSON. Reverse geocoder service is easy to set up and can be used in a matter of minutes. strues-maps.lt geocoder has address data and various locations like schools, libraries, museums, community centers, churches, farmsteads, shops, clinics, etc. The geocoder database contains around 1.8 million reference points for baltic states alone.
Reverse geocoding is useful for address input simplification by suggesting an address that is resolved from user coordinates. It is also useful in discovering places nearby end-user locations, for example, a train or bus station. Another use case of reverse geocoding is for organizing media databases. Photo data is usually enriched with GIS coordinates, which can be used in social media sharing or creating hot maps of photographs. Several years after a trip, one is more interested in the city and country one visited than in the longitude and latitude of the photograph.
Reverse geocoding might be used on mobile devices or the internet of things (IoT). One approach of the initial longitude and latitude collection is coordinates provided by the GPS module, another - by examining characteristics of the user's wireless signal and comparing it to available Wi-Fi signals with public hotspot references. This approach allows determining calculated coordinates without having a GPS module available on the hardware.
Various businesses are utilizing reverse geocoding - e-commerce, emergency response operators, trucking, or last-mile couriers. E-commerce might use reverse geocoding for fraud prevention in payment processing, by verifying that the billing address provided during checkout matches the geographic location of the payment operation. Emergency responders might use it to convert incident or caller coordinate data into a readable address. Trucking companies might use reverse geocoding to determine the addresses of their vehicles. Last-mile couriers might use reverse geocoding to validate addresses and ensure that delivery is made to the right location.
Reverse geocoding is a process of transforming numerical coordinates into a human-readable description of a place. Reverse geocoder uses are often found in e-commerce, emergency response, trucking, or last-mile companies. Its most common uses are to verify the address, validate the address, and determine the location.