Overview
The Overture Maps base theme provides the land, water, infrastructure, and bathymetry features that are necessary to render a complete basemap. The majority of these features come from OpenStreetMap. We classify OSM features into type, subtype, and class based on their tags. The land and ocean polygons are derived from the Daylight Coastlines. The theme includes six feature types:
bathymetry
: derived vectorized bathymetric data products from ETOPO1 and GLOBathy data.
infrastructure
: Infrastructure features such as communication towers and lines, piers, and bridges from OpenStreetMap.
land
: physical representations of land surfaces derived from the inverse of OSM Coastlines; translates natural tags from OpenStreetMap.
land_cover
: derived from ESA WorldCover, high-resolution optical Earth observation data.
land_use
: classifications of the human use of a section of land; translates landuse tag from OpenStreetMap.
water
: physical representations of inland and ocean marine surfaces; translates natural and waterway tags from OpenStreetMap.
Understanding the parquet files
Schema for the GeoParquet files in the base theme
- bathymetry
- infrastructure
- land
- land_cover
- land_use
- water
column | type | description |
---|
id | string | A feature ID that may be associated with the Global Entity Reference System (GERS) if—and-only-if the feature represents an entity that is part of GERS. |
geometry | binary | A WKB representation of the entity's geometry - a Polygon or MultiPolygon. |
bbox | struct | Area defined by two longitudes and two latitudes: latitude is a decimal number between -90.0 and 90.0; longitude is a decimal number between -180.0 and 180.0. |
version | integer | Version number of the feature, incremented in each Overture release where the geometry or attributes of this feature changed. |
sources | struct | The array of source information for the properties of a given feature. Each source object lists the property in JSON Pointer notation and the dataset from which that specific value originated. |
depth | integer | Depth below surface level (in meters) of the feature. |
cartography | struct | Defines cartographic hints for optimal use of Overture features in map-making. |
filename | string | Name of the file being queried. |
theme | string | Name of the Overture theme being queried. |
type | string | Name of the Overture feature type being queried. |
column | type | description |
---|
id | varchar | A feature ID that may be associated with the Global Entity Reference System (GERS) if—and-only-if the feature represents an entity that is part of GERS. |
geometry | binary | A WKB representation of the entity's geometry - a Point, Polygon, MultiPolygon, or LineString. |
bbox | struct | Area defined by two longitudes and two latitudes: latitude is a decimal number between -90.0 and 90.0; longitude is a decimal number between -180.0 and 180.0. |
version | integer | Version number of the feature, incremented in each Overture release where the geometry or attributes of this feature changed. |
sources | struct | The array of source information for the properties of a given feature. Each source object lists the property in JSON Pointer notation and the dataset from which that specific value originated. |
subtype | varchar | A broad category of the building type and purpose. |
names | struct | The name associated with the feature. The first entry in the array of names must have a "local" language. |
class | varchar | Further delineation of the building's built purpose. |
level | integer | The building feature's Z-order, i.e., stacking order. A Z-order of 0 is ground level. |
height | double | Height of the feature in meters. |
surface | varchar | Surface material, mostly from the OSM tag, with some normalization. |
source_tags | struct | Any attributes/tags from the original source data that should be passed through. |
wikidata | varchar | The Wikidata ID for the feature. |
filename | varchar | Name of the file being queried. |
theme | varchar | Name of the Overture theme being queried. |
type | varchar | Name of the Overture feature type being queried. |
column | type | description |
---|
id | string | A feature ID that may be associated with the Global Entity Reference System (GERS) if—and-only-if the feature represents an entity that is part of GERS. |
geometry | binary | A WKB representation of the entity's geometry - a Point, Polygon, MultiPolygon, or LineString. |
bbox | struct | Area defined by two longitudes and two latitudes: latitude is a decimal number between -90.0 and 90.0; longitude is a decimal number between -180.0 and 180.0. |
version | integer | Version number of the feature, incremented in each Overture release where the geometry or attributes of this feature changed. |
sources | struct | The array of source information for the properties of a given feature. Each source object lists the property in JSON Pointer notation and the dataset from which that specific value originated. |
level | integer | The building feature's Z-order, i.e., stacking order. A Z-order of 0 is ground level. |
subtype | string | A broad category of the building type and purpose. |
class | string | Further delineation of the building's built purpose. |
surface | string | Surface material, mostly from the OSM tag, with some normalization. |
names | struct | The name associated with the feature. The first entry in the array of names must have a "local" language. |
source_tags | struct | Any attributes/tags from the original source data that should be passed through. |
wikidata | string | The Wikidata ID for the feature. |
elevation | integer | Elevation above sea level (in meters) of the feature. |
filename | string | Name of the file being queried. |
theme | string | Name of the Overture theme being queried. |
type | string | Name of the Overture feature type being queried. |
column | type | description |
---|
id | string | A feature ID that may be associated with the Global Entity Reference System (GERS) if—and-only-if the feature represents an entity that is part of GERS. |
geometry | binary | A WKB representation of the entity's geometry - a Polygon or MultiPolygon. |
bbox | struct | Area defined by two longitudes and two latitudes: latitude is a decimal number between -90.0 and 90.0; longitude is a decimal number between -180.0 and 180.0. |
version | integer | Version number of the feature, incremented in each Overture release where the geometry or attributes of this feature changed. |
sources | struct | The array of source information for the properties of a given feature. Each source object lists the property in JSON Pointer notation and the dataset from which that specific value originated. |
cartography | struct | Defines cartographic hints for optimal use of Overture features in map-making. |
subtype | string | A broad category of the building type and purpose. |
filename | string | Name of the file being queried. |
theme | string | Name of the Overture theme being queried. |
type | string | Name of the Overture feature type being queried. |
column | type | description |
---|
id | string | A feature ID that may be associated with the Global Entity Reference System (GERS) if—and-only-if the feature represents an entity that is part of GERS. |
geometry | binary | A WKB representation of the entity's geometry - a Point, Polygon, MultiPolygon, or LineString. |
bbox | struct | Area defined by two longitudes and two latitudes: latitude is a decimal number between -90.0 and 90.0; longitude is a decimal number between -180.0 and 180.0. |
version | integer | Version number of the feature, incremented in each Overture release where the geometry or attributes of this feature changed. |
sources | struct | The array of source information for the properties of a given feature. Each source object lists the property in JSON Pointer notation and the dataset from which that specific value originated. |
level | integer | The building feature's Z-order, i.e., stacking order. A Z-order of 0 is ground level. |
subtype | string | A broad category of the building type and purpose. |
class | string | Further delineation of the building's built purpose. |
surface | string | Surface material, mostly from the OSM tag, with some normalization. |
names | struct | The name associated with the feature. The first entry in the array of names must have a "local" language. |
source_tags | struct | Any attributes/tags from the original source data that should be passed through. |
wikidata | string | The Wikidata ID for the feature. |
elevation | integer | Elevation above sea level (in meters) of the feature. |
filename | string | Name of the file being queried. |
theme | string | Name of the Overture theme being queried. |
type | string | Name of the Overture feature type being queried. |
column | type | description |
---|
id | string | A feature ID that may be associated with the Global Entity Reference System (GERS) if—and-only-if the feature represents an entity that is part of GERS. |
geometry | binary | A WKB representation of the entity's geometry - a Point, Polygon, MultiPolygon, or LineString. |
bbox | struct | Area defined by two longitudes and two latitudes: latitude is a decimal number between -90.0 and 90.0; longitude is a decimal number between -180.0 and 180.0. |
version | integer | Version number of the feature, incremented in each Overture release where the geometry or attributes of this feature changed. |
sources | struct | The array of source information for the properties of a given feature. Each source object lists the property in JSON Pointer notation and the dataset from which that specific value originated. |
level | integer | The building feature's Z-order, i.e., stacking order. A Z-order of 0 is ground level. |
subtype | string | A broad category of the building type and purpose. |
class | string | Further delineation of the building's built purpose. |
names | struct | The name associated with the feature. The first entry in the array of names must have a "local" language. |
source_tags | struct | Any attributes/tags from the original source data that should be passed through. |
wikidata | string | The Wikidata ID for the feature. |
is_salt | boolean | Indicates the presence of salt water. |
is_intermittent | boolean | Indicates whether or not the water is intermittent. |
filename | string | Name of the file being queried. |
theme | string | Name of the Overture theme being queried. |
type | string | Name of the Overture feature type being queried. |
Data access and retrieval
Overture's base theme data is freely available on both Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure Blob Storage at these locations:
- Bathymetry
- Infrastructure
- Land
- Land Cover
- Land Use
- Water
provider | location |
---|
Amazon S3 | s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=bathymetry/*
|
Azure Blob Storage | https://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=bathymetry/*
|
provider | location |
---|
Amazon S3 | s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=infrastructure/*
|
Azure Blob Storage | https://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=infrastructure/*
|
provider | location |
---|
Amazon S3 | s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=land/*
|
Azure Blob Storage | https://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=land/*
|
provider | location |
---|
Amazon S3 | s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=land_cover/*
|
Azure Blob Storage | https://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=land_cover/*
|
provider | location |
---|
Amazon S3 | s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=land_use/*
|
Azure Blob Storage | https://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=land_use/*
|
provider | location |
---|
Amazon S3 | s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=water/*
|
Azure Blob Storage | https://overturemapswestus2.blob.core.windows.net/release/2025-06-25.0/theme=base/type=water/*
|
Overture distributes its datasets as GeoParquet, a column-oriented spatial data format that is a backwards-compatible extension of Apache Parquet. Parquet (and GeoParquet) is optimized for "cloud-native" queries, which means you can use many developer-friendly tools to efficiently fetch column "chunks" of cloud-hosted data. We encourage users who are new to GeoParquet to consult this guide.
The Getting Data section of this documentation offers instructions for using several tools to access Overture data, including DuckDB and Overture's Python command-line tool. See examples below for addresses.
We recommend querying and downloading only the Overture data you need.
If you have a particular geographic area of interest, there are several options for using a simple bounding box to extract address data.
Schema design choices
- basic classification of features into
type
, subtype
and class
where appropriate.
- parsing and normalization of common OSM tags, such as
height
and ele
.
- extraction of consistent OSM tags, such as
wikidata
to top-level properties.
- direct pass-through of remaining relevant OSM tags.
Schema reference