A rapidly expanding fleet management company wanted to extend its operations into a new city. But to enter a new market, they had to face intense competition and high risks. For them, choosing the wrong location could result in inefficient routing, delayed deliveries, and increased operational costs. Instead of selecting a location randomly without prior knowledge about the area, the company’s strategy team partnered with building footprint data providers. These high-quality building outlines offered location insights for precision targeting. But, how did they make use of this data?
The company began by analyzing the city’s built environment with the help of the building footprint data and footprint mapping. They analyzed the distribution of industrial vs. residential buildings, closeness to distribution centers and logistics routes, and overall street-level accessibility. They combined these data with public information such as zoning regulations, land use types, and infrastructure accessibility. This helped them quickly identify strategic micro-areas underserved by logistics providers, allowing them to select three new locations with confidence and negotiate leases more effectively.
Building footprints have a lot to tell, don’t they? So, what is a building footprint, why exactly is footprint mapping important, and where are these building outlines usually used? Let’s uncover all of these in this blog.
What are building footprints, and how does footprint mapping help?
A Google Map or a satellite image can provide a relatively good overview of a neighborhood, including its parks, roads, buildings, and sometimes even automobiles. So then, why do we need building footprint data at all?
Here’s the difference.
Building footprint doesn’t just show where buildings appear to be, but tells exactly where they are, how big they are, and defines each one as a separate, mappable object. It is a building outline that accurately represents the shape of every building on a map, much like a polygon image. Once we have those shapes, we can associate them with other relevant POI attribute data, such as the height, function, or formality of the building.
Unlike Google Maps, where we eyeball an image and guess, building footprint GIS data lets you answer questions like
- What is the number of buildings in this block?
- Are they residences, stores, or educational institutions?
- Which regions have a high density?
- Where might we find limited infrastructure availability?
Some industries use footprint mapping to gain a competitive advantage, as well as to conduct more accurate market analysis and strategic planning. Footprint mapping involves gathering building outlines, placing them on the map, and letting the data tell their story. Let’s look at what these industries are and how they obtain and use building outlines to their advantage.
5 industries that rely on building footprints
Although it may not be something people consider frequently, building footprint is crucial for these industries. Building footprints help them find the best location for their business and market their brand to their potential clients.
1. Retail & restaurants
Retail and food service businesses use building footprint GIS data to plan for retail site selection, assess surrounding structures, and estimate the number of possible customers.
Not only does it help with retail site selection, but along with footprint mapping, businesses can identify store layout and hyperlocal advertising like customized promotions, seasonal & time-based campaigns, event-based marketing, and more. These decisions can be greatly impacted by knowledge of the density of surrounding office buildings, schools, or residential complexes.
2. Real estate & property development
Real estate agents need an understanding of the metropolitan environments to find undeveloped land, identify the infrastructure in the area, and more effectively design new developments. They do this with the help of building footprint or simply put, building outlines.
These building outlines help agents with accurate site selection, telling them exactly what’s surrounding their desired site. Also, with footprint mapping they can identify high-growth areas, evaluate zoning opportunities, and avoid expensive blunders.
3. Urban planning & smart cities
Building footprint GIS data is a crucial component of the smarter cities that are emerging. Planners use it to build public areas, improve transit systems, and produce more residential surroundings.
Building outlines guarantees that urban design satisfies the demands of expanding populations, from planning green areas to laying out additional bike lanes. Not only that, but footprint mapping also helps optimize resource allocation, regulate infrastructure growth, and improve sustainability efforts, taking into account the city’s future growth and technological advances.
4. Telecommunications
Building footprints, along with POI attributes can help telecom companies identify the best places for 5G deployments, cell towers, and antennas. With the help of details like building heights, locations, and densities, telecom companies can improve connectivity in busy cities, minimize coverage gaps, and deliver better service quality.
Also, with footprint mapping, telecom providers can plan for future expansions, predict network demand, and allocate resources efficiently in both urban and rural areas.
5. Insurance and risk assessment
Insurance companies gain valuable insights through building footprints and footprint mappings to assess precise risks and damages due to natural catastrophes, fires, and floods.
Also, some POI attributes like building size and location, along with the building outlines, can give them an idea of coverage possibilities and policy costs. This information enables better risk profiling, more accurate premium pricing, and expanded claims administration, which leads to increased operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
If you haven’t used building footprint data to increase growth yet and your business belongs to any of these sectors, then now is the ideal moment to begin using it to improve growth and open up new possibilities.
Need building footprint data? We’ve got the good stuff
Xtract.io is a leading provider that offers geospatial solutions and detailed building footprint data. Take a look at what we offer.
- 700,000+ high-precision building footprints that are ready for integration at scale.
- Every polygon we create is handcrafted by real people, so you can count on it being both accurate and reliable.
- You can build your own unique Points of Interest (POI) databases with our personalized polygon data services.
- Our polygon datasets are regularly updated with the latest geographic information, providing fresh geospatial insights to keep you informed.
- You’ll get your polygon data in formats that work best for you, be it Excel, WKT, GeoJSON, or Shapefile.
Work with Xtract.io and tap into building footprint data that’s both highly accurate and fully customizable to your needs.
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