The Development of a Location Addressing System for Rural Villages in Botswana: Tlokweng Case Study

Abstract

Communities rely on location addressing for various purposes in order to optimize their emergency responses, services, and goods delivery. Without a well-designed location addressing system (LAS), governments and other service providers struggle to efficiently and effectively provide goods and services to local communities. Botswana has adopted a Land Administration Procedures, Capacity, and Systems (LAPCAS) project, developed by a Swedish company, to produce a unique system to address the need to pinpoint locations in the country. However, it has not solved the issue of location addressing in villages as the one currently being developed nationally has not as yet been implemented. As a developing country, Botswana needs a LAS to facilitate  the identification and location  of properties and to plan developments based on the existing infrastructure. Technological advancements such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Navigation and Satellite Systems (GNSS), and Web 2.0 have made it possible to develop LAS to improve emergency response and service delivery in most Western countries. Thus, a prototype LAS was developed in this study.  Using the Python programming language, the GeoPandas Framework, and the Django Web Application, it has already demonstrated its potential benefits in a peri-urban village, namely, Tlokweng, in Botswana. The objective is to show that geoinformation techniques can be used as foundations for identifying  locations and navigating the challenges facing rural areas in developing countries such as Botswana.