FlatGeoBuf
A performant binary encoding for geographic data based on flatbuffers, designed for fast streaming and spatial filtering.
What is FlatGeoBuf?
FlatGeobuf is a binary file format for encoding geographic vector data, built on the FlatBuffers serialization library. It is designed to be significantly faster than legacy formats like Shapefiles and GeoPackage, especially for large volumes of static data, while supporting efficient streaming and random access. The format can optionally include a spatial index for fast bounding box queries.
GIS developers and data engineers working with large, static geographic datasets who need high-performance read/write operations, streaming capabilities, or efficient spatial filtering. It is also suitable for developers integrating with major GIS tools like GDAL, QGIS, GeoServer, PostGIS, and MapServer.
Developers choose FlatGeobuf for its superior performance in read/write speeds and smaller file sizes compared to traditional GIS formats, its support for efficient streaming and random access without requiring random writes, and its optional spatial index that enables rapid spatial filtering while maintaining simplicity.
Overview
A performant binary encoding for geographic data based on flatbuffers
Use Cases
Best For
- Streaming large geographic datasets over HTTP with efficient range requests and spatial filtering.
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