Efficient Proximity Computation Techniques Using ZIP Code Data for Smart Cities

In this paper, we are interested in computing ZIP code proximity from two perspectives, proximity between two ZIP codes ( ) and neighborhood proximity ( ). Such a computation can be used for ZIP code-based target marketing as one of the smart city applications. A naïve approach to this computation is the usage of the distance between ZIP codes. We redefine a distance metric combining the centroid distance with the intersecting road network between ZIP codes by using a weighted sum method. Furthermore, we prove that the results of our combined approach conform to the characteristics of distance measurement. We have proposed a general and heuristic approach for computing proximity, while for computing proximity, we have proposed a general approach only. Our experimental results indicate that our approaches are verifiable and effective in reducing the execution time and search space.