EnergyAtlas Logo EnergyAtlas Wiki Edit on GitHub

Urban Data Integration

Step-by-step workflow for importing and integrating urban building data into EnergyAtlas.

Overview

Urban data integration workflow diagram

Urban data integration is the first step in any EnergyAtlas project. This workflow guides you through importing building data, validating it, and preparing it for archetype assignment and simulation.

Step 1: Initialize Building Downloader

Step 1 browse the map for data

Building pmtiles preview will be available if you click on the Buildings layer's eye icon once. These geometries indicate the density of building data availability. Empty regions indicate lower built-up density.

Step 2: Zoom in to Area of Interest

Step 2a zoom in to selected area

When zoomed in to a location or region of your choice, building geometries will appear at a closer zoom level. You may also turn on other layers to preview all data available for the given area. For example:

Step 2b optional layers to turn on

We recommend you leave at least the 2 layers on:

  • Buildings
  • Places (POIs)

They are crucial for EnergyAtlas to infer building type- and use-related information. Below is an example:

Step 2c only building and poi layers

Step 3: Select Download Area

Use the selection tool at the bottom of the interface, you will be able to specify an area of interest on the map. There are 2 modes available:

  • Selection by rectange: you will be prompted to draw a rectangle and all buildings that touch the selection rectangle will be selected. This is a faster way of making building selection.
  • Selection by hand-drawn polygon: you will be prompted to draw a polygon by clicking on all the vertices of the polygon in order. All buildings that touch the selection polygon will be selected. When you are finished with your selection, simply click Complete Polygon button to finalize your selection.

If successful, you will get this interface:

Step 3a choose download area

On the right panel you will be prompted with 2 options:

  • Download & Save to Datahub
  • Download Only (GeoJSON): this will trigger a browser download and save a local .geojson file that contains selected features contained in all visible layers. You will easily be able to open and preview it with QGIS.

Step 3b successful download

If you have successfully downloaded the features and saved to Datahub, you will find a new entry matching the name you specified in Entry Name field (or the default name) in the Datahub tab, which is accessible from the bottom-right corner of the page.

Step 4: (Optional) Preview Your Geospatial Data

The Spatial Data Preview Tool could help you peek the dataset you just downloaded. Visit Spatial Data Preview Tool for more instructions.

Next Steps

After successfully importing data: