[Bug]: Wrong/Missing TileIDs in OPEN-BUILDING-MAP

[matthiasdemuzere]

Contact Details

mdemuzere@gmail.com

Provide Dataset Link

https://gee-community-catalog.org/projects/obm

Describe the bug

The tiles for Western African countries, using the TileIDs from the OBM grid tile explorer, are missing.

This is eg. the case for Tile IDs 14017, 14024, 14025, covering Mauritania and Mali.
Going further West, the next Tile IDs work again (122200, 122210, ...)

Simple reproducible example:

// Load the tile grid to explore coverage and metadata
var grid = ee.FeatureCollection('projects/sat-io/open-datasets/OPEN-BUILDING-MAPS/open_buildings_grid');
print(grid.first())

// Example: Load a specific tile 
var tile = 122200  // This one works.
var tile = 14017  // Fails
var buildings = ee.FeatureCollection('projects/sat-io/open-datasets/OPEN-BUILDING-MAPS/tiles/building_'+tile);

Map.centerObject(buildings)

// Filter buildings with known occupancy types
var buildings_with_occupancy = buildings.filter(ee.Filter.neq('occupancy', 'UNK'));
print('Buildings with occupancy:', buildings_with_occupancy.size());

// Filter buildings with height information
var buildings_with_height = buildings.filter(
  ee.Filter.and(
    ee.Filter.neq('height', ''),
    ee.Filter.neq('height', null)
  )
);
print('Buildings with height:', buildings_with_height.size());

Relevant additional information

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[bruno-portfolio]

Investigation Results

Found the root cause: The Grid Explorer App displays incorrect tile IDs.

Evidence

The OBM Grid Explorer shows Tile: 14024 for the Mauritania/Mali region (see screenshot), but this ID doesn't work to access the data:

// This FAILS (ID from Grid Explorer):
var buildings = ee.FeatureCollection(
  'projects/sat-io/open-datasets/OPEN-BUILDING-MAPS/tiles/building_14024'
);
// Error: Asset not found

The Problem

The app appears to display a numeric index instead of the actual quadkey. Quadkeys only use digits 0, 1, 2, 3 (base-4), so 14024 (contains 4) is invalid.

The Data EXISTS

The correct quadkeys for that region work fine:

Quadkey	Region	Buildings
033301	Nouakchott, Mauritania	1,210,325
033311	North Mali	106,757
033312	Bamako, Mali	4,095,823
033313	Central Mali	15,487,713

// This WORKS (correct quadkey):
var buildings = ee.FeatureCollection(
  'projects/sat-io/open-datasets/OPEN-BUILDING-MAPS/tiles/building_033301'
);
print(buildings.size()); // 1,210,325

Suggested Fix

The Grid Explorer App should display the quadkey field instead of the numeric index.

@samapriya This appears to be a UI bug in the Explorer app, not missing data.