🗂️ Dataset Overview¶

📡 Google Open Buildings 2.5D Temporal Dataset

Revolutionary building height data covering 8 years of temporal analysis

~58 million km²

2016-2023

Annual snapshots providing historical building height evolution

Effective 4m

Provided at 0.5m for maximum detail

### 🏗️ **building_presence**

Range: 0-1 (probability)

Purpose: Indicates the likelihood of building presence at each pixel

Tip: Use threshold > 0.5 for reliable building detection

### 📐 **building_height**

Range: 0-100 meters

Purpose: Height in meters above terrain

Tip: Values represent building height, not elevation above sea level

### 🔢 **building_fractional_count**

Range: 0-N (fractional count)

Purpose: Fractional building count per pixel

Tip: Useful for density analysis and urban planning

Not available for North America, Europe, or Australia (these regions have LIDAR data coverage)

Same building may have different heights across years due to processing variations

Buildings may appear to shift between years due to satellite imagery differences

Varies by location and cloud cover conditions

Factor	Impact	Recommendation
Cloud Cover	🔴 High impact	Choose years with minimal clouds
Urban Density	🟡 Medium impact	Higher accuracy in dense areas
Building Size	🟢 Low impact	Better detection for larger buildings
Terrain Complexity	🟡 Medium impact	Flat areas more accurate

Choose your preferred method and start analyzing urban landscapes!