DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE UN VECTOR TILE TOOLKIT

Abstract. The UN Vector Tile Toolkit (https://github.com/un-vector-tile-toolkit/) is a package of open source tools designed under the UN Open GIS Initiative to enable public basemap providers, such as the UN geospatial information services or mapping organizations of governments, among others, to deliver their basemap vector tiles leveraging the latest web map technologies. The toolkit provides a set of Node.js open source scripts designed for developers to use with existing and proven open-source software such as Tippecanoe, Maputnik and Vector Tile optimizer. The toolkit will help organizations to produce, host, style, and optimize fast and interoperable basemap vector tiles, making them available with various application frameworks. The talk will cover automatic and continuous updates of basemap vector tiles using a continuously updated PostGIS database which stores both the UN mission-specific basemap data and global OpenStreetMap data. The talk also focuses on how the project ensured interoperability with different existing enterprise geospatial software frameworks that use less-advanced web map libraries. The project aims to build a sustainable community of developers that support the provision of fast and interoperable basemap vector tiles.