PSMA Australia — a government owned company created to provide access to geospatial data — is offering an API that, it says, enables software developers to incorporate “unprecedented detail’ about any building in Australia into their applications.
“Following PSMA’s release of the national Geoscape dataset, which mapped every building across Australia in unprecedented detail, the data can now be selectively called on at low-cost using the API,” PSA says.
According to the Geoscape website, its dataset has captured “Every building in Australia … providing a pixel by pixel understanding of the surface of the Australian continent.” It “provides location, elevation, height, roof materials and footprint of every building, its solar panels, and nearby trees and swimming pools … [and] land and tree coverage.”
PSMA CEO Dan Paull said software developers could access comprehensive buildings data with ease and only pay for what they use. “In today’s connected society, businesses rely on location data for a huge range of tasks, from powering digital maps to matching correct delivery addresses; for property development and planning to assessing risk,” he said.
He suggested the service could revolutionise the operations of a range of businesses, large and small. “For the first time, for example, a solar panel installer can accurately understand and map the buildings in their neighbourhood to see which already have solar panels, but the possibilities are virtually endless.”
During beta testing, the most queried attribute through the API was building centroid – the coordinates of latitude and longitude for a building’s centre point. Other popular attributes queried were building elevation, area and maximum roof height.
PSMA says it has a portfolio of APIs for use in internet-connected applications. “We’re operating within the rapidly growing data economy, which is increasingly reliant on high-quality location data to drive business and government outcomes.”
The Building API can be accessed at https://developer.psma.com.au/pricing/buildings.
