Administrative Model

Overall Model

The following figure depicts the overall Administrative Model.

Figure 1. Overall Administrative Model

Administrative Places

The Administrative Places layer contains the hierarchy and attributes for each administrative area in the HERE Map. For example, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States.

This layer is partitioned based on Clip Level, representing the lower unique level at which administrative polygons are guaranteed to be spanning (non-overlapping). Clip Level may vary by country.

The following table lists examples of county level partitions for the United States. The United States clip level is the county administrative level.

Administrative levels above the country clip level provide the administrative level information for all administrative entities above the specific country level.

Place is described in this layer at all administrative levels. Each Place is associated with an administrative context. For example, for Chicago:

The Administrative Context are facets representing the unique combination of geocoding levels, both administrative levels, such as county or region, and non-administrative levels, such as neighborhoods. The example in the following figure provides a representation of an Administrative Context down to the city level.

Figure 2. Administrative Context

Administrative Locations

The Administrative Locations layer publishes locations for administrative areas and includes the drive-to location, as well as the polygonal boundary, if it exists, of the administrative feature. Entities in this layer are referenced by Places in the Administrative Places layer.

The Administrative Locations layer follows the same clipping level logic as the Administrative Places layer, as seen in the following figure.

Figure 3. Clipping level logic

Administrative Locations are referenced by Administrative Places via the location reference identifier. The following figures show an Administrative Places layer with identifier “1469256587” and the corresponding referencing mechanism.

Figure 4. Administrative Places

Figure 5. Administrative Locations

Street Names

The Street Names layer contains road names with their related attribution.

The concept of the Street Section is used, which is the smallest street unit based on common Street Name, administrative area, postal, and zone coding. Each occurrence of a Street Name within a specific Admin / Postal / Zone area results in a new Street Names layer entry.

Entities in the Street Names layer references Places in Administrative Places layer, as seen in the following figure.

Figure 6. Entities in the Street Names layer

A Street Names layer entry is referenced by the Address Attributes layer to provide address range and administrative information applicable to the Street Name.

Administrative Partitioning

Administrative areas may be arranged hierarchically. Partitions that represent a location in the hierarchy are named using relevant identifiers according to the following scheme:

{AdminLevel1Id}-{AdminLevel2Id}-...{AdminLevelNId}

Layers using this scheme are partitioned at one of two levels in the hierarchy:

1. Country level, which is always the root of the administrative hierarchy.
2. Clip level, which depends on the country and is the level at which administrative polygons are guaranteed to form a polygonal partition (spanning, non-overlapping) with consistent segment-level admin coding. The clip level is the first (minimum) level for which the boundaries are polygonal and span. For example, clip-level in the United States is admin level 3 (county). In Germany, it is also level 3 (Kreis).

Address Attributes

The Address Attributes layer contains address (house number) ranges associated to the road network, as well as references to administrative and road name information based on segment anchors.

Figure 7. Address ranges

Additionally, Administrative Context and Street Section referencing are provided to reference the corresponding administrative place and street names.

Figure 8. Administrative Context and Street Section referencing

Address Locations

The Address Locations layer contains point locations for addresses (Point Address) and additional detailed addresses within a building (Micro Point Address) such as an apartment, floor, or suite.

Address Locations reference segments in the Road Topology & Geometry layer.