DataSF, the San Francisco open data dashboard, has released a 3-D map and app that allow the public to analyze the footprint of individual buildings within the city.
A blog post on the DataSF site announced the live portal on Wednesday.
Part of the data is derived from the National Ocean Service’s light detection and ranging system lidar, while other data comes from city databases.
Permits, planning documents, inspections and discrete identifiers are associated with each building.
Builders of the map, some of whom come from the Department of Technology’s SFGIS division, the Department of Environment and the City Planning Department, focused on individual buildings, recognizing that many residents want to know more about the buildings they see every day.
“Many of us relate to what we see on the street or in the skyline,” the blog writers noted.
The portal’s designers hope to add to the app over time.
“The buildings are a lynchpin in a built environment data model that will provide increasingly better insights on what’s happening across the city,” the blog reads.
The app could be used for future planning, detailed maps and more accurate studies of how buildings affect the area around them and each other, often known as shadow studies.
