Display Buildings from OpenStreetMap Files

Read Buildings from OpenStreetMap File

Read the buildings layer from an OpenStreetMap file [1] containing data for several city blocks in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. The buildings within the file have edited colors and materials. The output geospatial table represents the buildings using polygon shapes in geographic coordinates.

buildingsLayer = readgeotable("shibuya.osm",Layer="buildings");

Visualize Maximum Heights of Buildings

The geospatial table stores the heights of the buildings in the MaxHeight table variable. Display the building footprints on a map by using the geoplot function. Vary the plot colors with the heights by specifying the ColorVariable name-value argument.

figure
geoplot(buildingsLayer,ColorVariable="MaxHeight")

Add a title, change the colormap, and add a labeled color bar.

title("Maximum Heights of Buildings")
colormap sky
c = colorbar;
c.Label.String = "Height in Meters";

Visualize Building Materials

The geospatial table stores the building materials in the Material table variable. Visualize the building footprints using a different color for each material.

When an OpenStreetMap file does not specify the material of a building, the table stores the Material value as "". For readability, find the table rows that do not specify a building material and replace "" with "unknown".

idxNoMaterial = buildingsLayer.Material == "";
buildingsLayer.Material(idxNoMaterial) = "unknown";

Find the unique building materials stored in the table.

materials = unique(buildingsLayer.Material)

materials = 4×1 string
    "concrete"
    "glass"
    "stone"
    "unknown"

Display the building footprints on a road map. To create a legend from the materials, display the building footprints for each material using a loop. Within the loop:

figure
geobasemap streets
hold on

for k = 1:length(materials)
   m = materials(k);
   idxm = buildingsLayer.Material == m;
   rows = buildingsLayer(idxm,:);
   geoplot(rows,DisplayName=m);
end

Add a title and legend, and make the buildings more opaque.

title("Building Materials")
legend
alpha(1)

Visualize Building Colors

The geospatial table stores the building colors in the Color table variable. Visualize the building footprints using the colors stored in the file.

When an OpenStreetMap file does not specify the color of a building, the table stores the color as "". Find the table rows that do not specify a building material and replace "" with a dark gray color. Specify the color using a hexadecimal color code.

idxNoColor = buildingsLayer.Color == "";
buildingsLayer.Color(idxNoColor) = "#565656";

Find the unique color codes stored in the geospatial table.

colors = unique(buildingsLayer.Color)

colors = 5×1 string
    "#027880"
    "#3BAA32"
    "#565656"
    "#808000"
    "#8E4585"

Display the building footprints on a road map. To apply each color, display the building footprints using a loop. Within the loop:

figure
geobasemap streets
hold on

for k = 1:length(colors)
	c = colors(k);
	idxc = buildingsLayer.Color == c;
	rows = buildingsLayer(idxc,:);
	geoplot(rows,FaceColor=c);
end

Add a title and make the buildings more opaque.

title("Building Colors")
alpha(1)

Add Data Tips to Buildings

Display the geographic coordinates, names, and heights of buildings by using data tips.

When an OpenStreetMap file does not specify the name of a building, the table stores the name as "". Find the table rows that do not specify a building name and replace "" with "unknown".

idxNoName = buildingsLayer.Name == "";
buildingsLayer.Name(idxNoName) = "unknown";

Display the buildings over a satellite basemap. Make the buildings more opaque.

figure
geobasemap satellite
geoplot(buildingsLayer)
title("Buildings in Shibuya")
alpha(0.7)

The geospatial table stores the centroids of the building footprints in the Centroid table variable. Extract the latitude and longitude coordinates from the centroids. Then, display the centroids on the map using a scatter chart. Prepare to add data tips to the scatter chart by returning the Scatter object as centroids.

lat = buildingsLayer.Centroid.Latitude;
lon = buildingsLayer.Centroid.Longitude;
hold on
centroids = geoscatter(lat,lon,"filled",SizeData=12);

Display the coordinates of a centroid by adding a data tip. Specify the scatter chart and latitude-longitude coordinates as inputs to the datatip function.

dt = datatip(centroids,35.65821,139.6986);

By default, the data tip displays the latitude and longitude coordinates. Add the building name and height to the data tip by adding new rows to the data tip template. For more information about creating custom data tips, see Create Custom Data Tips.

dtRowName = dataTipTextRow("Name",buildingsLayer.Name);
centroids.DataTipTemplate.DataTipRows(end+1) = dtRowName;

dtRowMaterial = dataTipTextRow("Height (m)",buildingsLayer.MaxHeight);
centroids.DataTipTemplate.DataTipRows(end+1) = dtRowMaterial;

[1] You can download OpenStreetMap files from https://www.openstreetmap.org, which provides access to crowd-sourced map data all over the world. The data is licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL), https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/.