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4.08. Stocks: Buildings - Chicago

Metabolism of Cities Data Hub
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Hello, I got one shapefile for building footprint, but here shapefile option is not present. However, I have added a webpage from where one can download shapefile.


Hi Nikita,

This particular category is for material stocks data. So here we expect a dataset that lists e.g. how much cement, sand, or glass is being used in the city. If you have a shapefile with the building footprint, that would best be suited under the INFRASTRUCTURE category (later, you can use that to calculate the material stock). We do need to look into those categories there but for now, I would suggest you upload the actual shapefile under LAND USE in INFRASTRUCTURE.


Ok, I got it. Thank you so much. Another problem I am facing is, I am not able to upload shapefiles because of their size.

Last edited: 2021-06-17 18:54:10.071421+00:00


How big are they exactly? Can you send me a link of a specific shapefile that is too large, to have a look?

Also I saw you uploaded these files. Great to see them in the system, but note that you are uploading different shapefiles into one -- that will cause issues when processing them. If you haven't seen them yet, check out the introduction video on shapefiles, part of the course, and you might also want to have a look at the data processing video on shapefiles, even though that this will only be done later but it will help you think about them in the right way.


Honestly, I do not know much about QGIC. However, I am learning it. The most crucial part of collecting data of the city of Chicago is to find data for the city and from the government website, I am getting data of the county, which we have already discussed. That's why I am uploading data of two counties (Cook and DuPage), part of which make the city of Chicago. The same happened with soil type data. I am sharing how I got uploaded shapefiles. Please let me know if I am going in the wrong direction. I went to this site - https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm, then I selected state - Illinois, then I set my area of interest as Cook County and DuPage County one by one to get shapefiles. After opening the zip file, I have uploaded all the files which were under the spatial folder. Please let me know whatever I can do during the data collection phase to save time for the upcoming section - data processing. I need some guidance on this, how and what I should separate from this bunch of files.

And the link for the building footprint, https://data.cityofchicago.org/Buildings/Building-Footprints-current-/hz9b-7nh8, from here we can export shapefile.

Last edited: 2021-06-18 18:53:13.558877+00:00

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