131M American Buildings

(tech.marksblogg.com)

169 points | by marklit 2 years ago ago

41 comments

  • didgetmaster 2 years ago

    I am tempted to import this data into my system and build a pivot table of building type (PRIM_OCC) by state.

    I could then graph the data (pie chart, bar graph, etc) to show how the building type distribution (e.g. residential ratio per hospital) varies between the states.

  • cranberryturkey 2 years ago

    any cool ideas I could build with this data?

    • walrus01 2 years ago

      One of the uses for something like this is to combine it with the best freely-available elevation data (processed/gap-filled SRTM mission + ASTER DEM data) for terrain height, and then landcover data for trees and foliage, in an attempt to predict 3GPP rev-whatever (4G/5G) radio coverage from tower, monopole and rooftop cellular sites.

      People have been post-processing and working on the SRTM1/3 data set for the US48 states for something like the last twenty years, and in some cases combining it with more recent space radar data.

      VHF/UHF repeater propagation maps and similar are another application. For both ham radio and public safety system more 'serious' radio purposes.

      Or to combine with other data sets for things like population per zip code or data sets on demographic info per zip code relative to the density of buildings, unique structures.

      Last mile facilities based ISPs and electrical grid operators and similar can use per-structure data sets like this to do calculations on network build or overbuild/ugprade/augmentation costs for specific geographic areas.

    • dredmorbius 2 years ago

      An IDF counterinsurgency bombing campaign.

      The precision with which Israel have exacted what appear to be controlled demolition of structures strongly suggests to me that targeting teams have fairly accurate ideas of building structure and critical weak points, to the point that they know specifically where, and how many times, to hit a structure to collapse it.

      Three-strike hit: <https://yewtu.be/watch?v=ZFTK9V_mEjI>

      Single-strike hit: <https://yewtu.be/watch?v=uHMjQnQTGvI>

      Accurate mapping + structure data plus precision munitions is what makes such strikes possible.

      Cartography was long considered national-security-level critical data, a situation only mooted by satellite surveillance beginning in the 1960s.

      • anonu 2 years ago

        This was exactly what I thought. Not sure why you're being downvoted. Granted it's not very useful if you're just an average citizen.

        • dredmorbius 2 years ago

          Establish yourself in non-mapped structures is actionable.

          Knowing when you're in a mapped structure is actionable.

    • IncreasePosts 2 years ago

      An application that simulates shadows at a particular location. For real estate purposes, seeing what kind of sunshine you would get in your backyard when you purchase that house with a backyard in the north.

      • aalimov_ 2 years ago

        Something like this: https://shademap.app/

      • maxerickson 2 years ago

        The geometry is just the building footprint. You could probably do some sort of estimate as to how likely the yard was to have sun, but it wouldn't enable doing anything detailed.

      • _boffin_ 2 years ago

        CoreLogic was doing something like this, but line of sight from a window and then be able to possibly identify the scene / view that can be had from that window.

    • anonu 2 years ago

      There's a company that does HVAC proposals for technicians who want to generate sales. Knowing residential buildings footprint and layout can be helpful to estimate job size.

    • delichon 2 years ago

      A sandbox game with a map 1 to 1 with the ground truth.

  • mannyv 2 years ago

    Note that there's a companion address database by the DoT:

    https://www.transportation.gov/gis/national-address-database

    • rubyfan 2 years ago

      Is that where the addresses came from?

  • rubyfan 2 years ago

    Anyone know if this is commercial buildings only or does it include residential too?

    • jeffbee 2 years ago

      Virtually all of the buildings are residential. There are 20x more residential than anything else.

      • pfdietz 2 years ago

        Does it include bike sheds? I feel I could spend a long time on that part of the database.

        • _carbyau_ 2 years ago
          • didgetmaster 2 years ago

            I had heard about bike shedding, and I still missed it too. I guess it was too subtle.

        • maxerickson 2 years ago

          One of the criteria for inclusions is an area greater than 450 square feet.

          You can look at it in a slippy map: https://gis-fema.hub.arcgis.com/pages/usa-structures (a couple clicks required from there).

          In my area it doesn't particularly identify garages well, so you probably can't spend that much time on bike sheds.

        • sailfast 2 years ago

          Only if they're blue though. A true bike shed has to be some shade of blue.

        • oliyoung 2 years ago

          Wonderfully executed joke. 10pts.

          • gerdesj 2 years ago

            You only get + or -.

            I love to see a wry comment being taken seriously too and this one did not disappoint.

            • maxerickson 2 years ago

              I didn't take it seriously, I was looking for a spot to drop a link to the map and it worked fine.

              Do you think my last sentence was earnest or something?

      • rubyfan 2 years ago

        A lot of them don't have addresses. I wonder if it can be intersected with another data set that has more complete address list.

  • cschep 2 years ago

    Desktop computers are amazing these days.

  • sevensor 2 years ago

    That computer is a monster! I wonder how many kWh this study cost.

  • hasnain99 2 years ago

    this asm

  • 2 years ago
    [deleted]
  • netflixr4 2 years ago

    [flagged]

  • BrandonMarc 2 years ago

    [flagged]