Get the type of terrain by coordinate

Question

I am looking for a solution that allows you to determine the type of landscape by a given coordinate, for example, check whether the current position is water / forest / city / road, etc. I found the google.maps.MapTypeStyleElementType spec in the google maps spec but am not sure if this can help me or not.

Perhaps there is another Maps API with this functionality? Or maybe I should refer to various types of offline maps?

Answer 1

No, the link you send is intended only for styling the corresponding functions, and not for determining which function is in the given coordinate. If you are interested in landscape, then Corine Land Cover is what you are looking for. It describes the types of biotopes such as forest, water, and land use - meadow, field, buildings, etc. However, I do not know if there is such an online service where you can request specific coordinates. Another solution for you would be to import these GIS layers (they are freely available) to your own gis map server. Perhaps this is partially allowed, as there is, for example, shows how to include them in openstreetmap .

Answer 2

Well, not really, but you can get closer to what you are looking for using the Google Reverse Geocoder and the Google Places API.

Google Reverse Geocoding http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/#ReverseGeocoding

If you send the geocode to the service, it will send back the address type and / or one of several component-addresses http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/#Types

Google Places API http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/places/

You can use the Google Places API to search for what is close. If the geocode is in the middle of the lake, the Places API can return something like "Lake Michigan," and then you know the landscape for sure.