Malawi Building Footprints from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap exports provide building footprints across Malawi, including every feature tagged as a building. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) maintains this dataset, which was last updated on 2026-05-14. Completeness varies by region, with urban areas typically better mapped than remote ones.

Use Cases

• Estimate population distribution based on building density and type.
• Assess building damage after natural disasters using footprint changes.
• Plan urban development and service allocation using building locations.
• Analyze land use patterns by categorizing residential, commercial, and institutional buildings.

Strengths

• Includes diverse building types such as homes, hospitals, schools, and places of worship.
• Available in multiple geospatial file formats including GEOPACKAGE, SHP, and JSON.
• Sourced from OpenStreetMap, a free, collaborative global mapping project.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Completeness varies geographically; remote areas may be incomplete.
• 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 20:52:27.298721; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Malawi