HERE Data Layers: The value of location as a service

HERE Technologies, the location data and tech platform, has released HERE Data Layers to improve software developer and data scientists’ access to the rich cartographic features and attributes captured within an enterprise-grade mapping platform. The demand for geospatial data has skyrocketed across industries as the global economy becomes more and more digitised. HERE Data Layers are standalone geospatial representations of the world’s road networks, pathways, buildings, structures, places, land use and land cover. These serve as a menu for developers and data scientists to select datasets needed to power today’s location-based functions, applications and customer experiences.

“We are ‘disaggregating’ our map via HERE platform to empower users to tap the value of high-quality geospatial data based on a globally consistent specification,” said Mithun Dhar, vice-president of Developer Relations at HERE.
The offering consists of high-value urban geospatial data sets in GeoJSON format—an open standard format designed for representing simple geographical features, along with their non-spatial attributes—and can be used in a range of use cases from map display, spatial analytics, business intelligence to AI/ML analysis.

HERE Data Layers include:
Administrative divisions: For example, country, state, province, municipality, city or built-up area.
Buildings: Man-made buildings with height and corresponding attribution.
Destination signs: Lists destinations visible on a sign and relates such destinations to a specific path in the road network.
Hydrography: Variety of water features (lakes, rivers, oceans, bays, etc).
Land cover: Content related to the physical coverage of the Earth (woodland, wetlands, grassland, desert or glacier).
Land use: Content related to the functional usage of land; it classifies areas of land for use by people.
Navigable roads: Road network with topology and navigable attributes.
Places: Points of interest with corresponding location and related attribution.
Traffic restrictions: Represents specific paths in the road network where legal, logical or physical restrictions apply.
Traffic signs: Signs along the road to inform driver of specific situations (warning signs, priority signs or stop signs).
HERE Data Layers is available for all via the company’s Freemium developer plan.