[OSM-newbies] Building footprint heights in OSM?

[Andrew Salzberg]

Andrew,

thanks.

I guess I've been relying on others who compile and export data into
shapefiles - but maybe now I'll have to dig in and figure out how to
convert OSM to shapefile myself, in order to capture all the tags I
want...

andrew

On 12/12/11, Andrew Errington <a.errington at lancaster.ac.uk> wrote:
> 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
>
>
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