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97% of Buildings On Earth 3D-Mapped (nature.com) 34

Posted by BeauHD from the building-polygons dept.
Longtime Slashdot reader Gilmoure shares a report from Nature: Scientists have produced the most detailed 3D map of almost all buildings in the world. The map, called GlobalBuildingAtlas, combines satellite imagery and machine learning to generate 3D models for 97% of buildings on Earth. The dataset, published in the open-access journal Earth System Science Data on December 1, covers 2.75 billion buildings, each mapped with footprints and heights at a spatial resolution of 3 meters by 3 meters. The 3D map opens new possibilities for disaster risk assessment, climate modeling and urban planning, according to study co-author Xiaoxiang Zhu, an Earth observation data scientist at the Technical University of Munich in Germany. "Imagine a video game with the world's buildings already mapped in basic spatial dimensions!" writes Gilmoure.
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97% of Buildings On Earth 3D-Mapped More

97% of Buildings On Earth 3D-Mapped

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  • 3m accuracy (Score:4, Informative)

    by digitect ( 217483 ) <digitect&dancingpaper,com> on Thursday December 11, 2025 @10:52PM (#65852635)
    Rats, as an architect I was hoping it might be useful to the general construction industry, but not at 3m accuracy.

    • Rats, as an architect I was hoping it might be useful to the general construction industry, but not at 3m accuracy.

      True, but I figure it'll be built into the next version of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

    • I saw a video of a DJI drone with a mounted LIDAR scanner [youtube.com] and it was mapping down to the power wires so that might just take another 10 years to get everything.

      • Nice, the Zenmuse L3 is $18k, the DJI Matrice 400 drone to carry it $11k. So it won't be long before surveyors and the like will be selling its services.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I'm wondering about that, because for years Google has had better resolution, but not 97% coverage.

      Maybe that's the worst case, and it's better in areas with better satellite photographs available. I think Google uses aerial photography too, to get views from different angles.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by larwe ( 858929 )

        Google has had better resolution, but not 97% coverage.

        The 3% is not just "buildings we haven't mapped yet" but also "buildings we aren't allowed to map". Lots of satellite coverage is censored due to, say, not wanting Random McWebsurfer to be able to research exactly what anti-aircraft hardware is on top of the White House. Same/same for 3D building mapping I'm sure.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I guess they need to use Yandex for that.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by larwe ( 858929 )
            That works for US destinations, but Yandex won't show you the fleet of Lamborghinis at Putin's ski resort. In any case, moderately seriously - the raw images exist, and I am sure that for the right amount of BTC you could easily obtain them.

    • You'd imagine that DJI has a drone you could use to (much more accurately) map a physical site...?

      (I haven't looked, but their cameras are good quality, so maybe there's some software that integrates or something?)

      FWIW, I'd love a high res 3d model of my house, the fences and maybe the trees around it etc, preferably in a format I can fiddle about with ;-)

  • Me: "Hey, that looks cool... I'll download a copy!"

    Server: "Entire Dataset: 36 TB total, 1844 Files"

    Me: "Never mind, then..."

    • No low poly version? Its OK if everything looks like a Tesla truck.

    • Put it up on Steam, just break it up into 72 500GB DLCs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
      More like; server : you have 2 options
      1: model only (no textures) 36TB
      2: Textures only 2-100 PB (depending on resolution)
      You; holy crap 36TB for models only, tea never mind that

  • Disappointing (Score:3)

    by NobleNobbler ( 9626406 ) on Thursday December 11, 2025 @11:30PM (#65852695)

    It just scales the footprint of a building on a given plot into the 3rd dimension by giving it a height.

    Everything, of course, turns into little skyscrapers.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Retron ( 577778 )

      Yup, it has no concept of extensions it seems.

      My own house is two-storey but with a small single-storey extension (containing the kitchen). This dataset has the whole house at 2.3m high, which is just plain wrong - the majority is around 4.6m high, with the extension being 2.3.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sique ( 173459 )

        The dataset [...] covers 2.75 billion buildings, each mapped with footprints and heights at a spatial resolution of 3 meters by 3 meters.

        It does not only seem so, it's right there in the description.

  • I suspect there's several different versions of something like this, only [gadgetreview.com] with [futurism.com] interior [theverge.com] floorplans [technologyreview.com].

    I mean, sure, the real estate industry. But I like to imagine high-tech cat burglars using them to plan their heists. More likely someone will turn it in to copware to sell to SWAT teams for planning drug busts.

  • "I can see my house from here..."

  • This is a massive invasion of privacy and will no doubt be used by HOAs and councils to perform dragnet building/planning enforcement. At my place, for example, there are significant remaining elements of an ancient stone shed which are somehow not on the cadastral record despite predating planning regs. Wonder if I'll get dragged into court over it now

    • Hope they do. My neighbors have a deer camp that's not on any map, been there for maybe 25 years. They haven't paid any taxes on it. Nor did they get approval, or follow any regulation that the rest of us have to go through. It would be visible from Google Maps satellite layer but the photos are always in the summer, not in the fall, winter or early spring before leaves come out. Which I've always found odd because the leaves hide all the trails, deer camps, etc.

  • "disaster risk assessment, climate modeling and urban planning"

    And the actual use it'll be put to?
    Artillery and missile effect maximisation.

  • "Imagine a video game with the world's buildings already mapped in basic spatial dimensions!" writes Gilmoure.

    Yeah, but can you go inside the buildings? And can people inside give you quests?

  • Target locked.

  • that more than 3% of buildings are underfound and not on 'official' maps.

    (Like in Russia, China, Iran, Israel , India etc)

  • Recent versions of Flight Simulator already has simple outlines of most buildings, they also have little cars driving around as well.
  • It's all good fun building the thing but I imagine the maintenance is a nightmare - how do updates get managed eg the local warzone?

  • Nice (Score:3)

    by Krneki ( 1192201 ) on Friday December 12, 2025 @12:34PM (#65853677)

    Military targets included

  • "Can I jump from this roof to that roof?"
    "Let's check the ultra realistic height map and compare to your jumping distance. Go ahead and roll while I do that."

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