Cognised existence: Habitat extent describes where ecological units are physically present as mapped spatial entities.
Question: Which habitat and nature-type areas are mapped at this location?
OSM wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_features
Realisations
Instead of hardcoding implementation schemas here, SPHERE separates semantic meaning from dataset implementation. See the following realisations for how to access this data:
Geometry Representations
| Rep ID | Source Dataset | Geometry Type | Native CRS | Suitable For | Not Suitable For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
habitat_osm_polygons | OSM via Geofabrik | Polygon | EPSG:4326 | Broad habitat screening, ecological context maps | Legal habitat designation compliance, Annex-level reporting |
Limitations
- Habitat semantics are proxy-based and non-standardized across countries.
- OSM cannot replace official ecological habitat surveys.
- Use as exploratory/open baseline, then validate with authoritative habitat products.