Macau – Country Specific Rating Guidelines

Introduction

For maps evaluation purposes, a complete basic address in Macau should include:

[Region] [Street Name] *,[Street number] *, [Estate name]*,[Phase]*, [Block]*, [Building name]*,[Floor]*,
[Unit]*

e.g. 氹仔/地堡街/279號/泉福新村/第一期/第三座/嘉宏閣/地下/G座

*denotes where it is available

.

The chart below illustrates the general relation between address components in the locale, as well as the associated checkbox in the rating interface.

* Repeated 澳門 indicates Macau as Macau Peninsula / the main island. Thus 澳門澳門 refers to ‘Macau, Macau Peninsula’. Expected address should only contain one Macao when region is Macao.

2.Required Components

 

Note the order of components, as the general expectation is for each component is to be listed from largest to smallest. If result address is not found in this order, it is considered a formatting issue

to be indicated as Correct with formatting issue (assuming no other issues with address), or Incorrect – Other issue (had other issues been identified with the address).

Legend:

Note: tables in this section summarize address expectations for an average result for each type. Special formats that are prevalent in the market will be explored in the next section

Results and official resources in Macau often return varying combinations of address components that are different from the minimum requirement. Here is how we can accurately rate the Address Accuracy despite those variance:

Example: A POI result returns 澳門 蓮花海濱大馬路 in the rating platform. Following the steps above we get:

As a result, the address above will be rated:

In total: Incorrect – Region / State, Country Specific issue, Unit / Apt number.

Any address component that we are returning has to be verified to be accurate even if it is optional by default. We will also stick to our locality formatting (Region), even if it does not appear in the official address of the POI.

Any address component that we are returning has to be verified to be accurate even if it is optional by default. We will also stick to our locality formatting (Region), even if it does not appear in the official address of the POI.

3. Rating Rule for Results in Macau

3.1 Street variations

Street types exists under many different names in Macau, but should be treated equally. Below are a few examples of such streets.

Above locality / region refers to the 4 main regions to be found in Macau and is expected to be returned most of the time. Below you may find the list of regions to be found in Macau.

Please note, 路氹城 (Cotai) is a newly reclaimed piece of land and, depending on the source used, may not be recognized as a valid locality. However, it should be treated the same as the other 3 main areas due to its prominence and importance.

.

You will frequently come across Localities (堂區) when rating for the Macau locale. However, this is not an expected component as its primary use is not for navigation but for historic / symbolic reasons. Thus, we only need to return them when the query is for the parish itself.

Notes:

•  路氹城 (Cotai) does not have any parishes.

Sub-districts / Sub-localities will be found less often, but be aware that they may exist. This is usually an optional component other than if it is searched for directly, in which case we only need to return them when the query is for the sub-locality itself.

Notes:

Building names are usually unique and thus can be used for navigation purposes. These components should always be returned if they can be confirmed via official sources.

As such, it is not uncommon for buildings/businesses to list their location/address as being inside a larger estate. An estate may have several phases (期) within, and each phase may have several blocks (座). Each block may have its own name, which usually ends with one of (樓／大廈／閣／廣場).

For Macau’s address verification, we will require an approach similar to rating for Hong Kong. As for verification of the address, whether it is valid, the general approaches will be covered below. However, please read the following notes on abbreviations and research expectations for approaching Macau addresses before proceeding.

As Macau was formerly a colony of the Portuguese empire, the official languages recognized in Macau consists of Portuguese and Chinese. By extension, addresses may also share elements similar to Portugal, where names, street types, and titles left over from the former colony may be used. The list below contains examples of abbreviations you may come across. (list is non-exhaustive):

When performing research, these special characters can be dropped in the research with the exception of street names. In these cases, please try to research using the rest of the components.

For example, if address contained ‘Lour°’, try dropping ‘°’, and research using ‘Lour’. With unit / floor numbers, dropping these component and/or locale and finally the special characters should be sufficient.

.

If the above methods still does not yield results, use your best judgement to draw a line between whether the address exists (Invalid – No (not reasonable)) or can’t be verified (Valid – and indicate the next verifiable components in the address) accordingly.

In addition, when approaching street name + street number addresses, please do note some resources may only recognize addresses with a space between the street name and number (plus or minus some tokens). For example, ‘氹仔官也街33號’ may not yield results, but ‘官也街 33’ does (removing the token ‘號’). Again, please approach queries using multiple combinations, and only mark Invalid if all resources and research fails to yield results.

.

Rating and Explanation

Similar to Hong Kong guidelines, if it can be determined that the address points to a single building, for example, through the presence of the building name and/or street name / number, then the address is considered valid.

Note: as long as the address can be used to determine a single location, any prior missing components (such as locality, or street number in the presence of a building name which is unique) can still have its address marked valid.

If the address can be determined to not be unique, thus covering more than a single property, location or

building (with different street number addresses), but within a reasonable distance as defined under global guidelines, indicate Invalid – Yes (Reasonable):

then indicate Invalid – Unreasonable.

Conceptually, the rating approach will be similar to Hong Kong rating guidelines.

If the street number range and building name was initially awarded a Valid rating for validity for indicating a single building, the building itself should be Perfect, and the half of the street in front of it and half way to the next building (as according to half and half rule) should be indicated approximate.

However, if the street number range was initially given Invalid – Reasonable due to indicating multiple buildings over its range, then the reasonable area would be the land / property in which the street number range indicates. The campus rule will then need to be applied to this range.

Applying these concepts to addresses in Macau:

.

Address expectations will be similar to Search for Macau, but different from Hong Kong, as building name is a required component in the address. It will generally be required, and not depend on whether the address was valid because of the building name or not.

Query is a street address without a building name, but a building name can be found after research: – Incorrect – Country Specific. Different from Hong Kong guidelines, building name is an expected component

Then proceed to verify the rest of the response address against the valid (or invalid – reasonable) query address and official sources.

If the query has a unit number, but the response address does not. Rate as per global guidelines:

Without unit no.: more than one rooftop for that address, whereas with the missing unit number, it would have lead to a single rooftop.