Click here to read the full Press Release announcements: Regrid and Overture Maps Foundation Connect Parcels and POIs with GERS ID Integration

We’re excited to announce a new interoperable ID match into our parcel data offering: a direct linkage delivered via a data bridge between our stable, persistent UUID - the Regrid ID and the GERS ID from the Overture Maps Foundation’s Places (Points-of-Interest) dataset.

The Global Entity Reference System (GERS) is a universal framework for structuring and matching data across systems via the GERS ID.  The Overture ‘Places’ data contains more than 64 million point representations of real-world entities across the globe, and over 8 million within the United States, including: schools, businesses, hospitals, religious organizations, landmarks, mountain peaks, and much more. By incorporating GERS IDs into any data that needs to be associated with their POI dataset, users can easily combine relevant data to build richer applications.

Similarly, the Regrid ID uniquely identifies a single parcel. Regrid ID is a stable parcel ID across data refreshes. It is the element that is used for tracking individual parcels through history and linking to other content consistently. It is also the attribute that is used for linking to any other data or as a foreign key. 

This data linkage opens up an array of opportunities for spatial analysis, data enrichment, and smarter decisions, whether you’re working on site selection, public planning, or commercial real estate analysis.

This integration provides a seamless way to derive parcel-level insights into activities happening on the parcel through business listings and points of interest information available from the Overture Places. This additional location context is the ideal accompaniment to the fundamental information Regrid parcel data offers via land use and zoning fields and takes it one step deeper, ensuring greater insights into the property landscape.

“We see tremendous value in linking Overture Places data to parcel boundaries, but the time and effort required to reconcile the two has been a hurdle. Integrating this data directly into Regrid will streamline our efforts to help policymakers understand how land is owned, used, and changing over time. We’re excited to explore this new capability and the insights it could unlock.”

 

— Reina Chano Murray, Associate Director at Center for Geospatial Solutions at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Interoperability of the Regrid ID and GERS ID Match

Data does not exist in a vacuum; all data solutions need other data points enriched to derive the insights one needs for their use cases. Regrid’s product line and client use-cases are a testament to this hypothesis.

Regrid recognizes that data content that relates to Regrid data assets (Parcels, Buildings, and Addresses) exists across a broad spectrum and is managed by a wide variety of entities and organizations. This reality quickly results in complexity across individual data asset classes, never mind the entirety of the data ecosystem that continues to evolve and expand. Linking disparate datasets by users is a time-consuming process with real associated costs. By providing pre-joined / matched datasets, costs are reduced significantly, and solutions are put into action at greater speed. With the number of data sources and inputs rapidly expanding over recent years, creating pre-joined enrichments from these elements is only becoming more time-consuming. Expanding data linking opportunities across a wider set of content is becoming key to bringing the necessary solutions to market.

For this reason, Regrid has made it core to our mission to not only ensure that the Regrid content assets are organized and optimized for interoperability within Regrid, but we’re also adding unique identifiers from other organizations and data partners to provide the greatest level of interoperability possible for a broad base of users. We began this journey with the incorporation of PlaceKey in 2024, and have continued it this year with the adoption of the PreciselyID and now the Overture Foundation GERS ID. Linking the GERS ID directly to Regrid parcels allows users who are utilizing data from numerous other entities to streamline and achieve greater data interoperability out of the box. 

Like we say here at Regrid, ‘More interoperability, more accessibility to data and data joining equals more solutions to grassroots-level problems and use cases.’

Regrid shared this core vision with the Overture Maps Foundation’s mission for data accessibility and collaboration, leading to more interoperability and spatial analysis. 

This integration enables:

• Easier joins between Regrid Parcels and Overture’s Places data
• Deeper parcel-level insights into what exists on or near a property
• Formal understanding of land-use like never before - What is happening on a parcel, what land can be used for, and what businesses and types of economic activity is already happening
• Alignment with emerging open data standards, GERS is already being promoted by major players in the mapping ecosystem

We’ve created a flat join file that briges each GERS ID from Overture Places to the corresponding Regrid ID. This is available for Regrid Premium Schema bulk data customers, with no additional costs or licensing requirements needed.

How To Unlock Smarter Decisions

With this GERS ID/Regrid ID match, our parcel data now provides a powerful bridge to Overture’s POI data, enabling new and richer workflows.

Site Selection for a wide variety of planned land uses.  By understanding not just existing zoning and land classifications present on Regrid Premium Parcels, but also adding into the mix specific business types that are present in a target area, users can make better decisions. For example, a coffee drink franchise working to identify new sites for a store location can utilize Regrid Premium Parcels to understand lot size, zoning type, land classification, and demographics combined with Overture Places Data, to identify the characteristics of successful stores and how competitors impact the business through proximity. This allows them to quickly identify potential areas for expansion with specific parcels based on both those parcel characteristics, and initial competitive analysis of other competitors who are present in the expansion areas. Having Regrid Premium Parcels and Overture Places pre-linked with the GERS ID, users are able to quickly perform this analysis without spending valuable time on intersection and matching operations.

Spatial Analysis is used to better understand how different types of data are impactful, or potentially impactful to one another, and allows users to devise strategies to increase or decrease these impacts as desired. As an example, by utilizing Overture Places Data in combination with Regrid Premium Parcel Data, a researcher can utilize demographic information present in the Regrid Parcel Data through Regrid’s partnership with Esri, alongside Regrid Zoning data also attached to parcels to better understand how comprehensively different businesses and other places serve communities with  a certain geographic area and analyze how those factors impact communities more broadly and make better planning decisions in the future. 

Commercial Real Estate (CRE) users will benefit in a variety of ways from a combination of Regrid Premium Parcel Data and Overture Places data being linked directly by the GERS ID. Commercial Real Estate site selection by businesses can utilize the combined Parcel Data and Places Data linkage to understand not only what complementary or competitive businesses are near a particular location, but can also utilize Regrid Premium Parcel data to better understand potential consumer reach and market dynamics in both near and far proximity to their business type. 

Ready to Get Started? 

If you’re already a Regrid Parcel customer and want access to the GERS ID bridge, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email us at support@regrid.com.

Not a customer yet? Send us a message at parcels@regrid.com to get started on learning how to integrate this new feature into your product.

This is just the beginning! Stay tuned for additional delivery methods and updates as we continue building this bridge between Regrid and the broader mapping ecosystem.