Skip to contents

Getting Started with overturemapsr

Source: vignettes/articles/01-getting-started.Rmd
01-getting-started.Rmd

The Overture Map Data project was launched by the Linux Foundation in 2022. Its goal is to create a geospatial data product that is easy-to-use and interoperable, merging datasets from both open and commercial data contributors. The list of Overture members is extensive and includes many of the industry’s biggest players, like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom. These companies are teaming up with open data projects to create a larger and more consistent geospatial dataset than ever before.

Overturemapsr

The overturemapsr R package provides access to Overture Maps open data. With this package, you can access over 2.3 billion building footprints, 52.6 million points of interest, and other features made available by Overture Maps.

Installation 

install.packages('overturemapsr')

You can install the development version of overturemapsr from GitHub

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("denironyx/overturemapsr")

Loading the Package

Start by loading the overturemapsr package:

library(overturemapsr)
library(arrow)

Available Themes

You can view all available themes using the get_all_overture_types() function:

# Get all available overture types
themes <- get_all_overture_types()
print(themes)

This will return:

[1] "locality"                "locality_area"           "administrative_boundary"
[4] "building"                "building_part"           "division"               
[7] "division_area"           "place"                   "segment"                
[10] "connector"               "infrastructure"          "land"                   
[13] "land_cover"              "land_use"                "water"

Accessing Datasets

To access the datasets provided by Overture Maps, use the arrow::open_dataset() function along with the dataset_path function. Here is how you can access and explore the building footprints and points of interest datasets without loading it into memory.

Building Footprints 
# Access the building dataset
building_dataset <- open_dataset(dataset_path('building'))

# Get the number of rows in the building dataset
nrow(building_dataset)
[1] 2355192722
Point of Interest

Using the place theme, we can fetch point of interests.

# Access the place dataset
places_dataset <- open_dataset(dataset_path('place'))

# Get the number of rows in the place dataset
nrow(places_dataset)
[1] 52622149

Using Bounding Boxes

To limit the size of the dataset and processing time, you can use bounding boxes. This is especially useful when dealing with large datasets. Here is an example of how to use a bounding box with the record_batch_reader() function that convert parquet file into data frame for use:

# Example bounding box
sf_bbox <- c(-122.5, 37.7, -122.3, 37.8)

# Retrieve filtered dataset based on the bounding box
result <- record_batch_reader(overture_type = 'place', bbox = sf_bbox)

Result:

# A tibble: 6 × 15
  id                                           geometry bbox$xmin $xmax $ymin $ymax version update_time                                                                sources names$primary    categories$main confidence websites socials emails phones 

    dataset   : > <chr>            <chr>                <dbl> <list<c> <list<> <list> <list> <chr>           <list<
 
1 08f2830940592b5e034cef17a0ea78ce (-122.4964 37.70068)     -122. -122.  37.7  37.7       0 2024-05-10T00:00:00.000Z                                                   [1 × 4] Palo -Mar Stabl… active_life          0.363      [1]     [1]           [1] NA               [1 × 5]
2 08f28309462d847503a8e8da827c2bca  (-122.494 37.70005)     -122. -122.  37.7  37.7       0 2024-05-10T00:00:00.000Z                                                   [6 × 4] Gelardi Tax Ser… tax_services         0.77       [1]                   [1] NA               [1 × 5]
3 08f283094290a29e03cfbf6f434fee90 (-122.4918 37.70196)     -122. -122.  37.7  37.7       0 2024-05-10T00:00:00.000Z                                                   [1 × 4] CorgiLand        pet_services         0.270              [1]               NA               [1 × 5]
4 08f2830942902400033849542bf6efe8 (-122.4905 37.70099)     -122. -122.  37.7  37.7       0 2024-05-10T00:00:00.000Z                                                   [1 × 4] Ruff 'n Ready L… pet_services         0.319      [1]     [1]           [1] NA               [1 × 5]
5 08f2830942914d12033d68719b44ca5c (-122.4889 37.70062)     -122. -122.  37.7  37.7       0 2024-05-10T00:00:00.000Z                                                   [1 × 4] Pleiades         professional_s…      0.319      [1]     [1]           [1] NA               [1 × 5]

In Summary:

The overturemapsr package is a powerful tool for accessing and working with Overture Maps open data in R. It provides a straightforward way to download and manipulate large geospatial datasets. With features like bounding box filtering, you can efficiently manage and analyze the data relevant to your area of interest.

Additional Resources