Cognised existence: A business location is the physical place where economic activity happens. It is an operational presence in space, not only a legal registration.
Question: Where does a business physically operate?
OSM wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:shop | https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:amenity | https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:office
Realisations
Instead of hardcoding implementation schemas here, SPHERE separates semantic meaning from dataset implementation. See the following realisations for how to access this data:
- [[Realisations/OpenStreetMap_business_locations|OpenStreetMap —
shop=*,amenity=*,office=*]]
Geometry Representations
| Rep ID | Source Dataset | Geometry Type | Native CRS | Suitable For | Not Suitable For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
business_osm_points | OSM via Geofabrik | Point | EPSG:4326 | Distribution mapping, nearest-service search, density analysis | Parcel-level frontage and floor area analysis |
business_osm_polygons | OSM via Geofabrik | Polygon | EPSG:4326 | Site footprint context, land-use overlap | Routing without network graph |
Limitations
- OSM does not provide legal company identifiers by default.
- Categories are community-defined and inconsistent across regions.
- Business closure/opening dynamics are unevenly updated.