⚙️ Method 1: Google Earth Engine

🏆 (Recommended)

🛰️ Most Powerful Method

Perfect for processing large areas and combining with other datasets

🚀 Prerequisites

### ✅ **Step-by-Step Setup** 1. **🔐 Sign up for Google Earth Engine** - Visit: [https://earthengine.google.com/signup/](https://earthengine.google.com/signup/) - Wait for approval (usually 1-2 days) 2. **💻 Access the Code Editor** - Go to: [https://code.earthengine.google.com/](https://code.earthengine.google.com/)

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🎯 Step 1: Extract Building Height Raster

[](https://code.earthengine.google.com/f90adbd664b59f53dfcaa4530da436c3)

📝 Complete Script

// 🎯 Define your area of interest
// Draw a polygon using the drawing tools or use this example
var geometry = ee.Geometry.Rectangle([
  [longitude_min, latitude_min],
  [longitude_max, latitude_max]
]);

// 📡 Load the Open Buildings 2.5D Temporal dataset
var openBuildingsTemporal = ee.ImageCollection(
  'GOOGLE/Research/open-buildings-temporal/v1');

// 📅 Select year of interest
var year = 2023;
var startDate = ee.Date.fromYMD(year, 1, 1);
var endDate = startDate.advance(1, 'year');

// 🔍 Filter collection
var filtered = openBuildingsTemporal
  .filter(ee.Filter.date(startDate, endDate))
  .filter(ee.Filter.bounds(geometry));

// 🗺️ Get projection and create mosaic
var projection = filtered.first().projection();
var buildingsMosaic = filtered.mosaic()
  .setDefaultProjection(projection);

// 🏗️ Select building height band
var buildingHeights = buildingsMosaic
  .select('building_height');

// 🎨 Visualize with beautiful colors
var heightPalette = [
  '1d4877', '1b8a5a', 'fbb021', 'f68838', 'ee3e32'];
var heightVisParams = {min:0, max:50, palette: heightPalette};

Map.centerObject(geometry);
Map.addLayer(buildingHeights.clip(geometry),
  heightVisParams, 'Building Heights');

// 💾 Export as GeoTIFF
Export.image.toDrive({
  image: buildingHeights.clip(geometry),
  description: 'Building_Height_Raster_' + year,
  folder: 'earthengine',
  fileNamePrefix: 'building_height_raster_' + year,
  region: geometry,
  scale: 4  // 4m resolution
});

---

🗻 Step 2: Create Digital Surface Model (DSM)

[](https://code.earthengine.google.com/f90adbd664b59f53dfcaa4530da436c3)

🌳 Advanced DSM with Trees and Terrain

// 🌲 Add Canopy Height (Meta/WRI 1m resolution)
var canopyHeight = ee.ImageCollection(
  'projects/meta-forest-monitoring-okw37/assets/CanopyHeight')
  .mosaic()
  .rename('canopy_height');

var treeMask = canopyHeight.updateMask(canopyHeight.gte(1));
var treeHeight = treeMask.unmask(0);

// 🏢 Add tree height to building height
var buildingsAndTrees = buildingHeights.add(treeHeight);

// ⛰️ Add Terrain Height (FABDEM 30m)
var fabdem = ee.ImageCollection(
  'projects/sat-io/open-datasets/FABDEM');
var fabdemMosaic = fabdem.mosaic()
  .setDefaultProjection(projection);
var dem = fabdemMosaic.select('b1');

// 🎯 Create complete DSM
var dsm = buildingsAndTrees.add(dem);

// 💾 Export DSM
Export.image.toDrive({
  image: dsm.clip(geometry),
  description: 'DSM_' + year,
  folder: 'earthengine',
  fileNamePrefix: 'dsm_' + year,
  region: geometry,
  scale: 4
});

---

🏢 Step 3: Extract Building Footprints with Heights

[](https://code.earthengine.google.com/f90adbd664b59f53dfcaa4530da436c3)

📐 Extract Polygon Data with Height Attributes

// 🏘️ Load Open Buildings V3 Polygons
var openBuildingsPolygons = ee.FeatureCollection(
  'GOOGLE/Research/open-buildings/v3/polygons');

var allBuildings = openBuildingsPolygons
  .filter(ee.Filter.bounds(geometry));

// 📊 Extract temporal data for each building
var temporalBands = buildingsMosaic.select([
  'building_presence', 'building_height']);

// 📈 Zonal statistics to get average height per building
var allBuildingsData = temporalBands.reduceRegions({
  collection: allBuildings,
  reducer: ee.Reducer.mean(),
  scale: 4,
  tileScale: 16,
});

// 🔍 Filter buildings present in selected year
var buildingsFiltered = allBuildingsData
  .filter(ee.Filter.gt('building_presence', 0.5));

// 🗺️ Reproject to UTM for accuracy
var buildingsReprojected = buildingsFiltered
  .map(function(f) {
    return f.transform({
      proj: projection,
      maxError: 0.1});
  });

// 📋 Select properties for export
var selectedProperties = ['area_in_meters', 'building_height'];
var renamedProperties = ['area', 'height'];

var buildingsExport = buildingsReprojected.select(
  selectedProperties, renamedProperties);

// 💾 Export as shapefile
Export.table.toDrive({
  collection: buildingsExport,
  description: 'Building_Polygons_with_Height_' + year,
  folder: 'earthengine',
  fileNamePrefix: 'building_polygons_with_height_' + year,
  fileFormat: 'SHP',
  selectors: renamedProperties
});

🎨 Visualization Tips

🎨 Color Palettes

Height Visualization:

['1d4877', '1b8a5a', 'fbb021', 'f68838', 'ee3e32']

📏 Scale Settings

• Testing: scale: 16
• Production: scale: 4
• High Detail: scale: 2

⚡ Performance Optimization

Setting	Value	Purpose
tileScale	16	Reduces memory usage
maxPixels	1e9	Prevents timeout errors
pyramidingPolicy	'mean'	Smooth visualization

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🎉 Congratulations!

You've mastered the most powerful method for extracting building heights!