[Imports] [Talk-us] Addition of building footprints in selected U.S. and Canadian cities

[Bill Ricker]

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 6:58 PM, Kate Chapman <kate at maploser.com> wrote:

>   I personally find [building footprints] makes the map far more usable
> for adding other information.
>

the coastal-swath NOAA LIDAR footprints imported is MASS are wonderful.
(Especially in Stamen watercolor tiles, but also in TopOSM render too. )

A Buildings layer is most useful if they're ubiquitous, not here-and-there
when interesting. As GPS mapping of individual houses is not accurate
without professional differential GPS -- 10m accuracy means i can't be sure
which corner of my house is which ! -- the choices are bulk imports or
tracing compatible imagery. When NOAA or a state has paid for LIDAR scans
and auto vector conversion, using that is efficient, and we can better use
volunteers to add value -- e.g. naming stores, as Kate says -- rather than
doing rote manual vector extraction from imagery.

There's quite enough for volunteers who *want* to do manual vector
extraction from imagery to do without tracing every darned house and barn
by hand!

-- 
Bill
@n1vux bill.n1vux at gmail.com
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