msfootprint: A Python package for extracting Microsoft's global building footprints based on user-defined boundaries

This tool allows users to retrieve microsoft global building footprint data based on a specified boundary (such as a shapefile or GeoJSON). The footprints are then saved as GeoJSON files to a specified output directory.

Features

• Supports multiple boundary input file formats: .shp, .gpkg, .kml, .geojson.
• Allows users to specify a boundary and retrieve building footprint data for a specific country or region or small study area.
• Compatible with Google Earth Engine (GEE)/ required GEE authentications.

Usage

It needs a GEE account to access the data.

To install the required dependencies, run the following:

pip install msfootprint

Once installed, import it in notebook or any python compiler.

import msfootprint as msf

Initialize all the variables

#Import all necessary things
import pathlib as Path
boundary_shp = Path('./shapefile_directory')
out_dir = Path('./output_directory')

#Import the name of country where the boundary is located
country = 'Nepal'

#In some cases, like 'Indonesia', it has seperate feature collection so to get the information about whether you can directly pass country boundary or need to be more specific with which table  contains your ROI, try this:
msf.FindTableorFolder('Indonesia')

#It is not direct table, it contains several statewise table so it will reflect sub collections name/boundaries.

#So if your boundary falls within specific table inside the country (incase it  contains multiple tables) defined as
country = "Indonesia/{table_name}"

For US, it is automated, so no need to give statename but for other countries having multiple tables need to follow aforementioned step

Now, run the main script

msf.getBuildingFootprint(country, boundary_shp, out_dir)

It will save the building footprint as geojson format in designated location.

Cite this Work

If you use msfootprint in your work, please cite it as follows:

Dhital, S. (2025). msfootprint: A Python package for extracting Microsoft's global building footprints based on user-defined boundaries (v0.1.24). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14597326

in BibTex,

@software{dhital2025msfootprint,
  author       = {S. Dhital},
  title        = {msfootprint: A Python package for extracting Microsoft's global building footprints based on user-defined boundaries},
  version      = {v0.1.24},
  year         = {2025},
  publisher    = {Zenodo},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.14597326},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14597326}
}

For Any Information

Feel free to reach out to me: Supath Dhital
Email: [email protected]