Places

The places layer in the HERE Vector Tile API contains features for administrative names such as countries, regions, cities, and other labels like states or provinces within a country as point geometry types. This layer also shows the names of neighborhoods and districts in a city.

In addition to the names of administrative regions, the places layer includes features like region type (for example, country, state, province), population, area, and other relevant information. You can use this data to create advanced applications like tools to study demographic trends, visualize election results, or analyze economic data.

The following figure illustrates sample features of the places layer rendered from the data:

The layer content has the following definition:

• Layer name: places
• Geometry types: point

The following sections provide an overview of the places layer in the HERE Vector Tile API:

• Shared properties
• Conditional properties
• Kind definitions and examples
  • Japan-specific kind definitions
• Additional information for different kind categories
• Next steps

Shared properties

Every feature in the places layer includes a set of properties that define it, regardless of the specific type of place it represents.

• name - The name of the place. The name might be provided in multiple languages, depending on the the available data.
• id - A unique identifier for the places feature.
• kind - The general type of place. For more information, see Kind definitions and examples.
• min_zoom - The minimum recommended zoom level at which the places feature should be displayed.

Conditional properties

Some places features include properties that are specific only to their corresponding kind.

• country_capital - This property is true for country capitals and applies only to features with kind value of locality.
• region_capital - This property is true for state capitals and applies only to features with kind value of locality.
• county_capital - This property is true for county capitals and applies only to features with kind value of locality.
• kind_detail - This property provides additional details about the kind of place, such as the specific type of locality or region. Examples of values for kind_detail include state, province, municipality, neighborhood, and so on. For more information, see Additional information for different kind categories.
• population - This property contains the population of the place as an integer value and applies only to features with kind value of locality.
• iso_code - This property contains the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two-letter country code and applies only to features with kind value of country.
• supercity - This property is true for important cities that are recommended to be always displayed on all zoom levels. This property is not present when its value is false.

• kind:xx - An alternate for kind according to the geopolitical viewpoint of a country, where xx is a lowercase ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (for example, cy or tr). To show features according to a particular viewpoint, use kind:xx if it exists; otherwise, fall back to kind.

  The following are code examples of the Cyprus labels in different viewpoints.

  International view:

  kind: country
  kind:cy: unrecognized_country
  

  Cyprus view:

  kind:cy    country
  

The following figure shows sample places features rendered on a map together with the associated metadata:

Kind definitions and examples

The kind parameter describes the general type of place (for example, country, region, locality) and provides a way to categorize and distinguish between different types of geographic features in the places feature, which can be useful for building applications that require different levels of detail or granularity.

• country - This value is used for features that represent entire countries. Examples include the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
• region - This value is used for features that represent larger regions, states, or provinces within a country. Examples include California, New York, and Texas in the United States, or Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia in Canada.
• locality - This value is used for features that represent cities, towns, and other populated places. Examples include New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago in the United States, or Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver in Canada.
• borough - This value is used for features that represent smaller administrative divisions within a city or other locality. Examples include Soho and Waterloo in London, or Scarborough and North York in Toronto.
• neighbourhood - This value is used for features that represent specific neighborhoods or districts within a city or other locality. Examples include SoHo in New York City, or Kitsilano in Vancouver.

Japan-specific kind definitions

The following kind values are available for the Japan map, within core map layer. These parameters are used to categorize Japan-specific administrative units within a locality and are not applicable to other countries or regions.

Use these values to categorize different types of administrative units in Japan, such as block numbers, parcel numbers, and subdistricts, which can be useful for building applications that require specific information about these units.

For more information about the map layer parameters available in the HERE Vector Tile API, see Layer Parameter.

See the following list of kind values within the core layer parameter for Japan:

• aza - Refers to administrative units within a locality such as block numbers or small villages. The term "aza" is used in Japan to denote small administrative areas.
• microhood - Refers to administrative units within a locality such as block or parcel numbers.
• oaza - Refers to subdistricts within a larger locality, typically used in Japan to describe rural areas.

The following figure shows sample places features with Japan-specific kind values:

Additional information for different kind categories

The kind_detail value provides more detailed information about the type of place, specifically for places of locality, region, and microhood kind.

For locality kind features, the kind_detail property can have values such as:

• city - For a place with a population of 100,000 or more.
• town - For a place with a population of 10,001 up to 100,000.
• village - For a place with a population of 201 up to 10,000.
• hamlet - For a place with a population of 200 and less or hamlet source data subtype.
• locality - For a place with no population and no data hints for label type.

The following figure shows a sample places features of kind locality rendered on a map:

For region kind features, the kind_detail property can have values such as:

• state - For a state-level region.
• province - For a province-level region.

For microhood kind features, which are only available in Japan and within the core map layer parameter, the kind_detail property can have values such as:

• block - For a block number, which requires a house number to determine the address.
• parcel - For a parcel number, which does not require a house number to determine the address.

Next steps

• For more information about other layer feature types available in the HERE Vector Tile API, see Tile Layers.