I had a look at the practicality of using the Rural/Urban boundaries from Stats NZ. If we adopted this classification, there are much fewer changes required:
- 18,249 addresses with
addr:suburbwould change toaddr:hamlet- based on this visualisation, these changes seem resonable since the addresses are genuinely rural.
- 33,286 addresses with
addr:hamletwould change toaddr:suburb- over 50% are from greenfields developments that have recently been urbanised (e.g. Karaka, Drury, Pōkeno, Jacks Point). The other 50% are from addresses on the fringes of urban areas. see map.
- 10,518 suburb/localities have changed names
- e.g.
Kamo→Te Kamo, Waitārere → Waitārere Beach
- e.g.
these potential changes can be viewed on a map here. red = Urban to Rural, green = Rural to Urban.