Establishment of Mobile Based Street and Property Address System for Nairobi

Mobile Physical Addresses are of essential public good which facilitate the provision of services, increase efficiency for aid and emergency services, helps in navigation, contribute to the enhancement of social and economic development at the broader scale. While some countries already have physical addresses systems which allow them to carry out their postal needs sufficiently, many countries around the world including Kenya still lack a countrywide infrastructure due to technical, political or financial limitations at any stage of the addressing life-cycle. This research introduces geospatial concepts and relates them directly to the field of addressing by summarizing what should be done and describing the steps that a city should take to integrate GIS and other geospatial techniques into their own addressing projects. Various datasets were obtained from different sources to compile a base map. The Cadastral map for Nairobi Central Business District was obtained from survey of Kenya and overplayed on the aerial photographs to check on the accuracy of the cadastral data, every parcel was given a unique identification and the roads connecting the parcels named according to their directions using ArcGIS Desktop. A web application was configured using ArcGIS online and customized to provide the directions and distances, a mobile application was also developed using collector application for ArcGIS and customized with a user interface. The user enters a given parcel ID and the application access the online database to provide directions, shortest routes and the travel distances. The application also provided for updating new parcels where they are subdivided or amalgamated however, a further research should be carried out to inform Secondary level addressing that will take care of multi-level building, rural and Informal settlements to have an address for everyone.