Building Footprints Across Cameroon from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap volunteer mappers have contributed building footprint data across Cameroon, tagged for various uses from residential homes to hospitals and schools. Coverage is likely more complete in urban areas where mappers are active, while remote areas may be sparse. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) provides this data under an ODbL license, last updated in June 2026.

Use Cases

• Estimate population distribution based on building density and types.
• Assess building damage after a disaster using pre-existing footprint data.
• Plan urban infrastructure development based on the location of schools, hospitals, and residential areas.

Strengths

• Includes diverse building types such as residential homes, hospitals, schools, and places of worship.
• Data is provided in multiple geospatial formats including GEOPACKAGE, SHP, and JSON.
• Sourced from OpenStreetMap, a free, collaborative world map.

Limitations

• Coverage reflects volunteer mapper activity, likely resulting in sparse data for remote areas.
• 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 mapping contributions tagged with `building=*`.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-20 10:18:32.961812; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Cameroon