Building Footprints Across Cameroon from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap exports contain every feature tagged as a building across Cameroon, including residential homes, hospitals, schools, and places of worship. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) provides this data, last updated on 2026-05-14. Completeness varies by region, with urban areas typically well-mapped and remote areas potentially incomplete.

Use Cases

• Population estimation based on building density and types.
• Damage assessment for disaster response based on building footprint changes.
• Urban planning and infrastructure development based on building distribution.
• Cross-referencing local field knowledge with volunteered geographic information.

Strengths

• Includes all OpenStreetMap features tagged as a building (`building=*`).
• Covers a diverse range of building types from homes to hospitals.
• Available in multiple geospatial formats (GEOPACKAGE, SHP, JSON).

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 11:33:40.145579; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Cameroon