Zones

Zones are enclosed areas on a map that represent an area of interest.

Within Altitude, there are three broad categories of zones:

Standard
A standardized breakdown of geography, broadly accepted and utilized in classifying geography (state, provinces, counties, cities, FSA/ZIP, CTR and TAZ).
Custom
A user-defined area of coverage; represented as a geospatial polygon.
Segment
A road segment (segment); represented as a geospatial line string. Within the Altitude platform, zones are input via standard parameter input structures.

Zones parameters

The zones input parameter allows users to input all categories of Altitude zones using a single construct.

The zones parameters is an array of objects (allows for multiple zones to be input at once), where each object defines a zone using the following attributes:

ZoneId (string)
A unique identifier for the zone.
ISO_3166_2 (string)
ISO 3166:2 code of the country and state or province in which the zone resides. This attribute does not apply to custom zones, segments or related roads and can be set to null.
ZoneType (string)
The type of zone. The value set for this attribute is: "State", "County", "City", "ZIP", "FSA", "TAZ", "CTR", "Segment", "Custom".

JSON examples

This section provides an example of how to structure the JSON for each zone type.

Note:

The input values for the Zones input parameter for different zone types can be obtained using the getContainedZones API.

State

A state or province geography.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"32", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"US-NV", 
    "ZoneType":"State"
    },
    {
    "ZoneId":"US-CA", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"US-CA", 
    "ZoneType":"State"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneIdProvide either the 2 digit FIPS code for the state, e.g. “06” for California, USA; or the state ISO 3166:2 code for the country and state, e.g. “US-CA” for California, USA.Required
ISO_3166_2The ISO 3166:2 value for the country and state.Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "State".Required

County

USA counties and Canadian census subdivisions.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"32003", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"US-NV", 
    "ZoneType":"County"
    },
    {
    "ZoneId":"2403005", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"CA-QC", 
    "ZoneType":"County"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneId

For USA counties this is a 5-character string where the first 2 characters are the state FIPS code (0 left padded) and the last 3 characters are the county FIPS code (0 left padded), e.g. “32003”.

For Canadian census subdivisions this is a 7-character string where the first 2 characters are the province identifier (0 left padded) and the last 5 characters are the census subdivision identifier (0 left padded), e.g. “2403005”.

Required
ISO_3166_2The ISO 3166:2 value for the country and province.Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "County".Required

City

USA cities only.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"3240000", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"US-NV", 
    "ZoneType":"City"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneId7-character string where the first 2 characters are the state FIPS code (0 left padded) and the last 5 characters are the city identifier (0 left padded), e.g. “3240000”Required
ISO_3166_2The ISO 3166-2 value for the country and state in which the city predominantly resides.Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "City".Required

Zip Code (ZIP)

USA zip codes only.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"89406", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"US-NV", 
    "ZoneType":"ZIP"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneId5-character string for the zip code (0 left padded), e.g. “ 89406”.Required
ISO_3166_2The ISO 3166:2 value for the country and state in which the zip code predominantly resides.Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "ZIP".Required

Forward Sortation Areas (FSA)

Forward Sortation Areas (FSA) for Canadian postal codes.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"G4T", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"CA-QC", 
    "ZoneType":"FSA"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneIdCFSAUID 3-character code which uniquely identifies forward sortation areas, e.g. “ G4T”.Required
ISO_3166_2The ISO 3166:2 value for the country and province in which the FSA resides Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "FSA".Required

Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ)

USA traffic analysis zones (TAZ) only.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"3200300000707", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"US-NV", 
    "ZoneType":"TAZ"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneIdGEOID10, which is 13-character code where the first 2 characters are the state FIPS code (0 left padded), the next 3 characters are the county FIPS code (0 left padded) and the last 8 characters are the traffic analysis zone code (0 left padded), e.g. “3200300000707”.Required
ISO_3166_2The ISO 3166:2 value for the country and province in which the TAZ resides.Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "TAZ".Required

Census Tract 2020 (CTR)

USA census tracts (CTR) only.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"32001950100", 
    "ISO_3166_2":"US-NV", 
    "ZoneType":"CTR"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneId11-character code where the first 2 characters are the state FIPS code (0 left padded), the next 3 characters are the county FIPS code (0 left padded) and the last 6 characters are the census tract code (0 left padded), e.g. “32001950100”.Required
ISO_3166_2The ISO 3166:2 value for the country and province in which the CTR resides.Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "CTR".Required

Custom Zone

Geotab Altitude created custom zones.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"z-qu7zzmo9pgd", 
    "ISO_3166_2":null, 
    "ZoneType":"Custom"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneIdAltitude generated zone id in the format “z-<>”.Required
ISO_3166_2This attribute is not utilized for custom zones; pass a null equivalent.Not Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "Custom".Required

Segment

Geotab Altitude basemap segments.

JSON example

"zones":[
    {
    "ZoneId":"-2088543117912970036", 
    "ISO_3166_2":null, 
    "ZoneType":"Segment"
    }
]

Object attribute values

Attribute nameValueRequirement
ZoneIdGeotab Altitude unique identifier for a road segment.Required
ISO_3166_2This attribute is not utilized for segments; pass a null value equivalent.Not Required
ZoneTypeThe fixed string value: "Custom".Required

Zone types

Learn about the various zone types.

State, county and city zone types

These types of zones are identified through tags built into our road segments themselves. Road segments are exclusive to state, county and cities, meaning no segments belong to more than one state, county or city. If one would cross the boundary, it should be cut into two different segments for each of the geographies in which it resides. When using these geographies as zones, segments are pulled based on the tags that associate it to whichever state, county and city to which it belongs.

Other zone types

For all other zone types, we calculate which road segments belong to a zone by determining if any point in the segment resides within the zone. If any point of the segment is within the zone boundaries, then that segment is considered part of that zone. This process is more complex, as it requires looking at all points in a segment to determine if any of them are within the zone boundaries.

Metrics impact

Due to efficiency optimization for both our scenarios, the results can be slightly different when pulling segments from states, counties, and cities compared to other zone types. When pulling segments and comparing between the smaller and larger zones, the sum of the segments may be different than a collection of different zones that make the same geography as the larger zone, such as pulling for all CTRs in a county instead of using the county zone itself.

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