One street, three names: the fixed identification number that joins records

Public works records a street by its old name, the parks department by the park next to it, the call centre the way the resident described it. All three are correct; but put together, the organisation cannot tell they refer to the same place.

The Regulation on Addressing and Numbering, published in the Official Gazette of 31 July 2006 (No. 26245), is based on Article 69 of Civil Registration Services Law No. 5490; its purpose is to set the rules for numbering buildings and entering addresses into the National Address Database.

Article 11 makes it mandatory to give neighbourhoods, squares, boulevards, avenues and streets a name or number, and in addition a fixed identification number that does not change. The same name or number cannot be used twice within a municipality. Article 20 requires the responsible authorities to check their area at least once a year and correct gaps and errors in numbering.

Article 14 of Municipal Law No. 5393 lists “geographic and urban information systems” among municipal duties, alongside urban infrastructure such as zoning, water, sewerage and transport. In our view, a shared geographic record across departments is the invisible infrastructure of that duty: when it fails nobody notices — everything just slows down.

Linking records by fixed identification number and location, rather than by name, lets departments read each other’s ledgers without translation.

Putting records in order does not require cleaning up the whole past. If every new entry uses the same key, the data the organisation uses most is soon in order; the past is brought across as needed.

• This article does not summarise all addressing rules; consult the current text of the regulation.
• A shared record does not require departments to change how they work.