Building Footprints Across Malta from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap exports provide building footprints for every feature tagged as a building across Malta. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) compiled this data, which includes structures from residential homes to hospitals, schools, and places of worship. The dataset was last updated on 2026-05-14.

Use Cases

• Estimate population density based on building footprint distribution.
• Assess structural damage after natural disasters based on building locations.
• Plan urban development and infrastructure based on existing building coverage.

Strengths

• Includes every OpenStreetMap feature tagged as a building (`building=*`).
• Covers a wide range of building types, from residential homes to hospitals and schools.
• Available in multiple geospatial file formats including GEOPACKAGE, SHP, and JSON.

Limitations

• Completeness varies by region; urban areas are usually well-mapped, 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 18:56:58.654195; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Malta