[OSM-newbies] Building footprint heights in OSM?

[Andrew Errington]

On Mon, December 12, 2011 14:28, Andrew Salzberg wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
> I'm wondering if there is a standard attribute for heights for
> building footprints in OSM - it seems like there's some conversation about
> this. Geofabrik does a great job of exporting OSM as shapefiles which I
> have made use of, but the building footprint layer does not include height
> - eg # stories of floors - which could then e easily
> extruded for analysis.  Is that because such features don't exist in OSM
> right now, or are not standardized? These bulding heights would be a huge
> help and obviously very useful.
>
> any guidance appreciated!
>

height=* is probably your best bet:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Building_attributes

Most people don't put the info in, since it is only visible to local
mappers.  It's hard or impossible to derive from aerials or GPS traces.

If you multiply the number of storeys (if present) by, say, 3 metres you
might get a reasonable approximation of height.

Best wishes,

Andrew