Building Footprints Across the United Arab Emirates from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap exports contain every feature tagged as a building across the United Arab Emirates, from residential homes to hospitals and schools. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) provides this data, last updated on 2026-05-13. Completeness varies by region, with urban areas usually well-mapped and remote areas potentially incomplete.

Use Cases

• Estimate population density based on building footprints.
• Assess damage from natural disasters by analyzing changes in building structures.
• Plan urban infrastructure and services using building location and type data.

Strengths

• Includes every OpenStreetMap feature tagged as a building (`building=*`).
• Covers a wide range of building types, from residential homes through hospitals, schools, and places of worship.
• Available in multiple geospatial file formats including GEOPACKAGE, SHP, and 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 data exported via the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 19:29:06.409664.

Geography

United Arab Emirates