Botswana Building Footprints from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap exports provide building footprints across Botswana, including every feature tagged as a building. The data is compiled by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and was last updated in May 2026. Completeness varies by region, with urban areas typically better mapped than remote ones.

Use Cases

• Population estimation based on building density and type.
• Damage assessment for disaster response using building location data.
• Urban planning and infrastructure development analysis based on building distribution.
• Cross-referencing local field knowledge for mapping validation.

Strengths

• Includes every OpenStreetMap feature tagged as a building, from homes to hospitals and schools.
• Available in multiple geospatial file formats including GEOPACKAGE, SHP, and JSON.
• Data is provided under the Open Database License (ODbL-1.0).

Limitations

• Completeness varies by region; remote areas may be incomplete.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

OpenStreetMap

Collection Method

Volunteer-contributed mapping via the OpenStreetMap platform.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14.

Geography

Botswana