Rural Routes of São Paulo and Google's Plus Codes

In the state of São Paulo, as in many rural areas around the world, the absence of standardized addresses for rural properties represented a significant obstacle. This gap hindered access to essential public services such as healthcare, security, and emergency response, as well as the delivery of mail and packages and the logistics for agribusiness. Unnamed roads and properties without official numbering created a scenario of invisibility for millions of rural residents.

To tackle this challenge, the Government of the State of São Paulo and Google established a pioneering partnership in Latin America, launching the "Rotas Rurais" (Rural Routes) program. The initiative sought to integrate Google's free Plus Codes technology into the state's rural addressing system. Plus Codes function as digital addresses, converting latitude and longitude coordinates into short, simple alphanumeric codes, similar to postal codes, that are easy to share and use even offline.

The "Rotas Rurais" program was executed by the Secretariat of Agriculture and Food Supply of the State of São Paulo, through the Institute of Agricultural Economics (IEA). The project involved mapping approximately 60,000 kilometers of rural roads and about 340,000 to 350,000 rural properties distributed across all 645 municipalities of São Paulo. An application was developed for rural producers to register their addresses, and the collected data is compatible with geographic information systems (GIS) and navigation apps like Google Maps and Waze, ensuring broad usability.

The implementation of Plus Codes in the "Rotas Rurais" project brought a series of transformative benefits:

• Expanded Access to Public Services: Rural residents can now accurately report their location in emergency situations, facilitating response from police, firefighters, and healthcare teams.

• Improved Mobility and Logistics: The clear identification of rural properties optimizes product delivery, the collection of supplies, and the mobility of people, boosting efficiency for agribusiness and daily life in the countryside.

• Social and Economic Inclusion: Having a formal digital address allows rural producers and their families to access financial services, such as bank accounts and credit lines, in addition to enabling them to receive online purchases, integrating them more fully into the digital economy.

• Support for Public Policy Formulation: The comprehensive mapping generates a valuable database that assists the government in developing and implementing more effective public policies for rural development.

The "Rotas Rurais" program of São Paulo with Google's Plus Codes stands out as a successful model of a public-private partnership for the digital and social inclusion of rural populations, demonstrating the power of technology to solve infrastructure challenges and promote sustainable development.