Bounding box
A bounding box (usually shortened to bbox) is an area defined by two longitudes and two latitudes, where:
- Latitude is a decimal number between -90.0 and 90.0.
- Longitude is a decimal number between -180.0 and 180.0.
They usually follow the standard format of:
bbox = left,bottom,right,top bbox = min Longitude , min Latitude , max Longitude , max Latitude
For example, Greater London is enclosed by:
{{bbox|-0.489|51.28|0.236|51.686}}
(bbox=-0.489,51.28,0.236,51.686)
The "export data" link on the main website allows you to draw a box, and the coordinates of the edges are shown to you.
In a WikiProject having a params sub-page, you can get the bounding box by using the template pBbox.
Nominatim API
Nominatim API returns a boundingbox property of the form:
south Latitude, north Latitude, west Longitude, east Longitude
For example, Greater London in JSON format:
"boundingbox":["51.2867602","51.6918741","-0.5103751","0.3340155"]
Visually defining a bounding box
Several utilities have been created by the community to provide a graphical interface for selecting a bounding box on a reference map:
- bbox-tool (source) by Norbert Renner
- bboxfinder.com (source) by Aaron Racicot
- Bounding Box Tool by Klokan Technologies
- Bounding-Box Auswahl by Christian Bruhn
- XAPI Query Builder (source) by Harry Wood
The map on the OpenStreetMap website can also be used:
- While viewing the map, click Export.
- Choose Manually select a different area.
- Drag the corners of the box to adjust the selection.
- Copy the coordinates from the left side of the screen.
- Cancel the data export by clicking the X.
osmconvert
See Osmconvert#Applying_Geographical_Borders
Changing an Overpass Turbo query to work within the displayed area on screen
Add "({{bbox}})" before the relevant semicolon, for example change:
relation["name"];
to
relation["name"]({{bbox}});
Overpass API
The order of values in the bounding box used by Overpass API is (South, West, North, East):
minimum latitude, minimum longitude, maximum latitude, maximum longitude
See more details in Overpass API#The map query.