Building footprints display the outline of individual structures on a digital map. These simple representations of the exterior shape and area of a building can have a profound impact on how multiple industries work.
At a glance:
When you open up a map on your smartphone to find your way around town, you may well have noticed building footprints outlined in these applications. They often appear as gray squares or rectangles and show roughly where stores, restaurants, or other landmarks are. This makes them really useful for wayfinding.
While the building footprints provided by major device manufacturers are very useful for consumers, their value for businesses and the government can provide great value as well. In recent years, building footprint data has become ever more accurate, and this is revolutionizing how multiple industries plan their operations and deliver services. Let’s see how your organization can benefit.
In terms of digital mapping, a building footprint is simply a polygon on a map that represents the physical outline of an individual structure (drawn along the exterior walls). GIS building footprints are represented as 2D shapes on a digital map, and can be added or removed as a vector laye.
The polygon itself is useful in that it differentiates an individual building from its surroundings (trees, gardens, roads, parking lots and other structures…). However, it is when this is joined up with other data sources that it becomes really powerful.
If you look at the ‘raw’ satellite image of an urban area, the human eye can fairly quickly identify roads, greenery, and buildings. That’s helpful, but it doesn’t really help answer complex questions:
And this is where building footprint GIS data help. By identifying individual structures, you can start to do much more advanced analysis.
Sometimes, people use the terms building footprint and building area interchangeably. However, there are some important differences.
As mentioned above, a building footprint is a polygon used in GIS maps representing a building’s location in its environment, its dimensions (shape) and the ground surface it covers as measured at the exterior walls.
On the other hand, ‘building area’ is a more general term and can mean different things in different situations. In real estate, a building’s area is often used to describe total internal floor space (including on all floors/levels) of the building. In other industries (e.g. architecture), building area may denote area as measured at the exterior walls. Building area is usually measured in square feet or meters.
In GIS mapping, building footprints can really help to analyze and understand a place. They are usually represented as vector data, allowing you to add or remove them as a layer in your map. In this section, you’ll learn more about GIS building footprints, how they’re made, and where the data comes from.
There are three principal ways of getting building footprint polygons onto a map:
There are several common sources of building footprint data. These include :
Beyond footprints: 3D mesh building extraction
On its own, a building footprint polygon might not seem particularly revolutionary. However, when you match it up with other data, these simple squares, rectangles, and triangles can be incredibly powerful, unlocking enormous amounts of value.
Building footprints can help a huge range of industries. Here are just a few building footprint examples in different industries :
Telecoms firms can benefit enormously from accurate building footprint maps. If, for instance, they are planning to roll out 5G networks, they need to know about the density and height of buildings in a specific area (as well as other obstacles such as trees and topography). This information can help identify the best location for cell towers.
A building footprint can be used to determine the priority or highlight strategic areas for deploying fiber to the home (FTTH) in large residential and commercial areas. This is because the size and layout of an accurately captured building can impact the feasibility and cost of installing fiber optic cables. For example, a building with a larger footprint may require more extensive and costly excavation work than a smaller one Additionally, buildings with a larger footprint may have more potential customers or tenants that would benefit from access to high-speed internet. Overall, analyzing building footprints can help service providers to identify areas where it would be most cost-effective and beneficial to deploy fiber optic cables.
A map showing building footprints can be invaluable to local government. For example, a town or city’s urban planning department can use the map to identify areas with high or low building density, to inform them where to build next. Meanwhile, local government can also use this information for planning services – from where to install electric vehicle charging points to street lighting or frequency of waste collection.
The insurance industry can also benefit from detailed building footprint data fiber to the home (FTTH) in large residential and commercial areas.to carry out risk assessment. Accurate maps can help them identify nearby risks (e.g., rivers, fire risks) and use this to inform their insurance quotes and premiums.
By analyzing building footprint maps, property developers can rapidly identify new opportunities for residential or commercial sites. For example, looking at building footprint data, they might identify brownfield sites or vacant lots that have great potential, without having to physically visit them in person. It can also be useful for things like ecological surveys, which are part of the planning process in many countries.
There are many uses of building footprints in architecture. They can help demonstrate how a planned building/street/neighborhood will integrate into the surrounding landscape, support zoning and planning requirements, or help with risk assessment (for things like flooding).
National governments and policymaking units can use building footprints to improve any number of services. For instance, by cross-referencing population maps with building footprint polygons, they might be able to deliver targeted poverty relief schemes. Meanwhile, in many countries, a lack of data on addresses makes collecting income tax a challenge – but building footprint polygons can help locate property and ensure everyone pays their fair share.
Building footprints are also incredibly useful to a range of commercial businesses. They could be used by convenience store chains to identify where to open their next branch, by food delivery firms to map out routes, or by sales and marketing departments to choose billboard locations or direct marketing campaigns.
Rooftop solar energy firms can use building footprints to help identify locations and orientations when choosing where to install rooftop solar arrays.
Building footprint data has also proven incredibly helpful in disaster recovery and aid scenarios following earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes. The information provided by this data helps aid agencies figure out where buildings and people are located, how to get help to them, and also with rebuilding after the event.
Learn mapping: What is a digital surface model?
Building footprint polygons provide an incredibly powerful tool for analysis, planning, strategy, and operations in multiple industries and sectors. What is more, when combined with other data (such as 3D maps, census data, mobility information, etc.) they provide even greater richness and insights.
Want to see how building footprints could help you? LuxCarta provides some of the most advanced building footprint data and maps in the industry. Contact us today for a demo.