Australian buildings data available via API to build intelligent tools

MEDIA RELEASE
24 January 2018

PSMA Australia, provider of Australia’s authoritative location datasets, has released an Application Programming Interface (API) that will allow access to data about any building in Australia. It will aid development of tools that use building data to improve insight and operations, without the need for site visits. 

The beta version of the Buildings API is based on the buildings theme from PSMA’s award-winning Geoscape^® dataset and is now available for free via the PSMA Developer Portal. It contains data on over 8.8 million buildings with more soon to come.

PSMA’s CEO, Dan Paull, said the company has just about mapped every building at every address in Australia and expects to have captured all buildings with a roof area greater than nine metres square by mid-2018.

“The Buildings API is a game changer for location intelligence,” said Mr Paull. “Never before and nowhere else has detailed information about the built environment been available at continental scale, and now it’s accessible via an API.”

The API takes an address string query and matches it to a known address. The address identifier looks up buildings at the address and the building identifier looks up the attributes of each building. Building attributes include:

• Building footprint – 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional
• Building centre point
• Building height
• Building elevation
• Roof material
• Roof pitch/complexity
• Solar panels on roof
• Adjacent swimming pools

This information could power a range of new applications, perhaps an app that tells users whether there is a pool at an address, a tool that automates quotes for roof restoration or software that allows couriers to check whether there is a building at a delivery address and where on the property it might be.

PSMA commissioned DigitalGlobe, the global leader in Earth imagery, to capture satellite imagery and extract built environment features for Australia for both Geoscape and the Buildings API.

Mr Paull said the Buildings API provides essential infrastructure for Australia’s digital economy.

“We’re in an age of data-as-a-service,” said Mr Paull. “New business models are required to increase accessibility of spatial data and that’s what PSMA is pursuing with our APIs.”

“Through our APIs, customers connect our data to theirs and extract insights. We aim for spatial data to be included in all systems development – to bring location intelligence to business processes and solutions – because everything happens somewhere.”

The Buildings API is built using ReST principles with response output in JSON. To get a key, register at the PSMA Developer Portal and opt-in for the Beta Program.
 

About PSMA Australia

PSMA Australia facilitates broad and sustainable access to high-quality, authoritative location data by providing foundational, national spatial information derived from Australia’s federal, state and territory governments and private sector partners. PSMA was formed by the governments of Australia in 1993 to collate, transform and deliver location data as national datasets. An unlisted company limited by shares, PSMA is owned by all the governments of Australia. As an independent and self-funded business, PSMA collaborates beyond government to drive innovation and provide fundamental infrastructure for a digital world. For more information visit: https://www.psma.com.au/

Contact:
Kate Donnelly
Spectrum Group
02 9412 6100
psma@spectrumgroup.is