Deep Dive Into HERE Data Layers -Part 1

HERE Data Layers launched last week and I can't wait to tell you all about it. In this blog post, we will talk about the layers in detail focusing on Administrative Divisions, Buildings, Destination Signs, Hydrography and Land Cover. As Ray explained in his introduction blog post, this product gives you access to core map GIS data directly in the GeoJSON format. Now let’s get into the details of what data is included in each layer in terms of geometry and properties.

Administrative Divisions

The administrative division layer gives the hierarchical administrative subdivisions such as Country, State, Province, District, County, etc. This is useful to resolve addresses into their district, city, county names. This layer also gives you the geographic boundaries of the administrative areas. As the layer is in the GeoJSON format, the areas are provided in the geometry object with type Polygon or MultiPolygon. This layer includes properties:

names
country
adminLevel
objectType
featureType
governmentCode
isoCountryCode
countryMetadata

This layer can be used to clean up address data, highlight certain areas to display statistics and can be used with other layers to generate customized map solutions. Below is a sneak peek into the GeoJSON file of the Berlin Administrative layer.

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              {
                  "id": "20187403",
                  "type": "Feature",
                  "properties": {
                    "names": [
                      {
                        "name": "베를린",
                        "nameType": "EXONYM",
                        "languageCode": "KOR",
                        "transliterations": [
                          {
                            "name": "Be Reul Rin",
                            "transliterationType": "KOX"
                          }
                        ]
                      },
                      {
                        "name": "柏林",
                        "nameType": "EXONYM",
                        "languageCode": "CHI",
                        "transliterations": [
                          {
                            "name": "Bo Lin",
                            "transliterationType": "PYN"
                          }
                        ]
                      },
                      {
                        "name": "Берлін",
                        "nameType": "EXONYM",
                        "languageCode": "UKR",
                        "transliterations": [
                          {
                            "name": "Berlin",
                            "transliterationType": "UKX"
                          }
                        ]
                      },
                      
                    ],
                    "country": "20147700",
                    "adminLevel": 50,
                    "objectType": "AdministrativeArea",
                    "childPlaces": [
                      "20187415",
                      "20328178",
                      "20328165",
                      ...
                      "28145324",
                      "28146052",
                      "28148777"
                    ],
                    "featureType": "Admin",
                    "parentplaces": [
                      "20187402"
                    ],
                    "governmentCode": "0",
                    "isoCountryCode": "DEU",
                    "countryMetadata": {
                      "ebuCode": "D",
                      "timeZone": {
                        "dstEndTime": 300,
                        "dstObserved": "YES",
                        "dstStartTime": 200,
                        "timeZoneOffset": "010"
                      },
                      "drivingSide": "RIGHT",
                      "currencyType": "EUR",
                      "maxAdminLevel": 5,
                      "unitOfMeasure": "METRIC",
                      "speedLimitUnit": "KMH",
                      "countryCode2Char": "DE",
                      "phoneCountryCode": [
                        "49"
                      ],
                      "currencyPrecision": 2,
                      "houseNumberPlacement": "AFTER",
                      "adminLevelDescriptions": [
                        {
                          "adminType": "COUNTRY",
                          "adminLevel": 10,
                          "adminTypeNames": [
                            {
                              "name": "Country",
                              "languageCode": "GER"
                            }
                          ]
                        },
                        {
                          "adminType": "STATE/PROVINCE",
                          "adminLevel": 20,
                          "adminTypeNames": [
                            {
                              "name": "Bundesland",
                              "languageCode": "GER"
                            }
                          ]
                        },
                        {
                          "adminType": "COUNTY/REGION",
                          "adminLevel": 30,
                          "adminTypeNames": [
                            {
                              "name": "Kreis",
                              "languageCode": "GER"
                            }
                          ]
                        },
                        {
                          "adminType": "MUNICIPALITY",
                          "adminLevel": 50,
                          "adminTypeNames": [
                            {
                              "name": "Gemeinde",
                              "languageCode": "GER"
                            }
                          ]
                        },
                        {
                          "adminType": "CITY/TOWN",
                          "adminLevel": 60,
                          "adminTypeNames": [
                            {
                              "name": "Settlement",
                              "languageCode": "GER"
                            }
                          ]
                        }
                      ]
                    },
                    "@ns:com:here:xyz": {
                      "tags": [],
                      "space": "P0UcTK5b",
                      "createdAt": 1599633826840,
                      "updatedAt": 1599633826840
                    },
                    "defaultLanguageCode": "GER",
                    "@ns:com:here:mom:meta": {
                      "layerId": "admin-divisions",
                      "sourceId": "here-product-primitives-admin-regions-GeoJSON-ext-v1",
                      "modelVersion": "1.0.0",
                      "catalogVersion": 34
                    }
                  },
                  "geometry": {
                    "type": "MultiPolygon",
                    "coordinates": [
                      [
                        [
                          [
                            13.41812,
                            52.37615,
                            0
                          ],
                          [
                            13.41792,
                            52.37616,
                            0
                          ],
                          [
                            13.41286,
                            52.37645,
                            0
                          ],
                          ...
                          [
                            13.18345,
                            52.47647,
                            0
                          ],
                          [
                            13.18364,
                            52.47608,
                            0
                          ],
                          [
                            13.18412,
                            52.47579,
                            0
                          ]
                        ]
                      ]
                  ]
                  } 
              }

Buildings

The buildings layer contains the 2-D footprint of the buildings along with attributes like height and building type. You can find the areas describe as Polygon and MultiPolygon in the geometry. You can use this layer for planning where to open a new store, combine it with the Traffic Signs Layer to find out if a place needs a traffic sign or even print a 3D model of the city skyline.

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            {
              "id": "72512103",
              "type": "Feature",
              "properties": {
                "names": [
                  {
                    "name": "Bundesministerium für Verteidigung",
                    "nameType": "UNCLASSIFIED",
                    "languageCode": "GER"
                  }
                ],
                "footprints": [
                  {
                    "id": 1,
                    "height": 20.657285479457638
                  },
                  {
                    "id": 2,
                    "height": 12.121442065272825
                  },
                  {
                    "id": 3,
                    "height": 12.121442065272825
                  }
                ],
                "featureType": "Building",
                "buildingType": [
                  {
                    "type": 2005250,
                    "typeDescription": "Government Building/Landmark"
                  }
                ],
                "isoCountryCode": "DEU",
                "@ns:com:here:xyz": {
                  "tags": [],
                  "space": "nxZ7CcI3",
                  "createdAt": 1599633822514,
                  "updatedAt": 1599633822514
                },
                "@ns:com:here:mom:meta": {
                  "layerId": "buildings",
                  "sourceId": "here-product-primitives-buildings-GeoJSON-ext-v1",
                  "modelVersion": "1.0.0",
                  "catalogVersion": 37
                }
              },
              "geometry": {
                "type": "MultiPolygon",
                "coordinates": [
                  [
                    [
                      [
                        13.36106321,
                        52.50623019,
                        0
                      ],
                      [
                        13.3874349,
                        52.52640831,
                        0
                      ]....
                    ]
                  ]
                ]
                }
              },

Destination Signs

The destination signs layer as the name suggests, gives information about the destination signs along the road. Okay, I understand this sounds like " destination signs has destination signs" but hear me out. The boards that you see along the road which indicate that the road goes towards a certain district, or that this road branches out to highway no A11, these are destination signs. The Destination Signs Map Data Layer lists the various destinations visible on a sign shield and relates such destinations to a specific path in the road network. These are handy to use in the in-car navigation on a bad weather day. You don't have to then depend on visibility to see the actual sign. You can see the digital version of the sign instead. The geometry of this layer contains MultiLineString data. Below is a sneak peek into the Berlin Destination Signs layer.

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            {
              "id": "701265911",
              "type": "Feature",
              "properties": {
                "category": "GUIDING",
                "sourceLink": "1198583726",
                "featureType": "DirectionSign",
                "destinations": [
                  {
                    "signEntries": [
                      {
                        "entryType": "TOWARD",
                        "signTexts": [
                          {
                            "text": "Reichstag",
                            "languageCode": "GER"
                          }
                        ]
                      }
                    ],
                    "destinationLink": "733098873"
                  },
                  ...
                    {
                      "entryType": "BRANCH",
                      "signRoutes": [
                        {
                          "routeText": {
                            "text": "B96",
                            "languageCode": "GER"
                          }
                        }
                      ]
                    }
                    ],
                    "destinationLink": "1242355280"
                  },
                  {
                    "signEntries": [
                      {
                        "entryType": "TOWARD",
                        "signTexts": [
                          {
                            "text": "Charlottenburg",
                            "languageCode": "GER"
                          }
                        ]
                      },
                    ]
                    "destinationLink": "770381354"
                  }
                ],
                "isoCountryCode": "DEU",
                "@ns:com:here:xyz": {
                  "tags": [],
                  "space": "SLXiaUjG",
                  "createdAt": 1599633817990,
                  "updatedAt": 1599633817990
                },
                "@ns:com:here:mom:meta": {
                  "layerId": "destination-signs",
                  "sourceId": "here-product-primitives-destination-signs-GeoJSON-ext-v1",
                  "modelVersion": "1.0.0",
                  "catalogVersion": 34
                }
              },
              "geometry": {
                "type": "MultiLineString",
                "coordinates": [
                  [
                    [
                      13.37136,
                      52.51078,
                      0
                    ],
                    [
                      13.37123,
                      52.51114,
                      0
                    ]
                  ],
                  [
                    [
                      13.37123,
                      52.51114,
                      0
                    ],
                    [
                      13.37128,
                      52.51115,
                      0
                    ],... 
                  ]
                ]
              }
            }...

Hydrography

The hydrography layer contains the water bodies in the area. This includes geometry objects for oceans, rivers, bays, lakes etc. This layer is a mixture of geometry types MultiPolygon and MultiLineString. Apart from visualization, you can use this layer applications like nautical routing, flood management, city planning and many more. This is what the layer looks like.

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            {
              "id": "56276170",
              "type": "Feature",
              "properties": {
                "cartoName": [
                  {
                    "name": "Spreekanal",
                    "nameType": "OFFICIAL",
                    "languageCode": "GER"
                  }
                ],
                "cartoType": 500414,
                "featureType": "Carto",
                "displayClass": 4,
                "cartoTypeName": "Canal/Water Channel",
                "@ns:com:here:xyz": {
                  "tags": [],
                  "space": "AwttqR0Y",
                  "createdAt": 1599633816880,
                  "updatedAt": 1599633816880
                },
                "@ns:com:here:mom:meta": {
                  "layerId": "hydrography",
                  "sourceId": "here-product-primitives-cartography-GeoJSON-ext-v1",
                  "modelVersion": "1.0.0",
                  "catalogVersion": 38
                }
              },
              "geometry": {
                "type": "MultiPolygon",
                "coordinates": [
                  [
                    [
                      [
                        13.4058,
                        52.51151,
                        0
                      ],
                      [
                        13.40484,
                        52.51139,
                        0
                      ],..
                    ]
                  ]
                ]
              }
            }...

Land Cover

The Land Cover layer tells you about where the woodlands, grasslands, deserts and glaciers are. It also gives you polygons representing the coverage of this topography. You can use this layer for mapping hiking trails and in applications like agricultural planning, wildlife preservation and many more.

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            {
              "id": "1549217291",
              "type": "Feature",
              "properties": {
                "cartoType": 300100000,
                "featureType": "Carto",
                "cartoTypeName": "Woodland",
                "isoCountryCode": "GBR",
                "@ns:com:here:xyz": {
                  "tags": [],
                  "space": "B29ugFXr",
                  "createdAt": 1599634129918,
                  "updatedAt": 1599634129918
                },
                "@ns:com:here:mom:meta": {
                  "layerId": "land-cover",
                  "sourceId": "here-product-primitives-cartography-geojson-ext-v1",
                  "modelVersion": "1.0.0",
                  "catalogVersion": 38
                }
              },
              "geometry": {
                "type": "MultiPolygon",
                "coordinates": [
                  [
                    [
                      [
                        -2.279181,
                        53.514931,
                        0
                      ],...
                      [
                        -2.282083,
                        53.515417,
                        0
                      ],
                      [
                        -2.281525,
                        53.515831,
                        0
                      ],
                      [
                        -2.279181,
                        53.514931,
                        0
                      ]
                    ]
                  ]
                ]
              }
            },

These were just 5 of the 10 layers available under the freemium plan. Stay tuned for the blog post from Sayna to know more about the rest of the HERE Data Layers. If you want to start using them already, head over to the documentation and give them a whirl.