Downtown Vancouver LIVE

What this twin is made of

Every object here comes from open data and keeps its real attributes. Live layers update on their own; the rest is the latest published record.

Live

• Sun position, shadows and street lights: computed for the exact minute in Vancouver.
• Weather and air quality (AQHI): Environment and Climate Change Canada, hourly (Data Server End-use Licence).
• Building permits issued in the last 90 days: City of Vancouver Open Data, updated by the City (Open Government Licence - Vancouver).
• Wildfires in BC: BC Wildfire Service (Open Government Licence - British Columbia).
• Earthquakes within 300 km in the last 30 days: U.S. Geological Survey earthquake catalogue (public domain), which includes events from regional networks.

Recorded

How to read it

Year built comes from the property assessment record of the parcel under each building; for some buildings that record carries the year of a major rebuild or conversion rather than the first construction.

Underground layers are drawn at exaggerated depths so they can be told apart; their routes, sizes, years and materials are the City's records. Building heights are measured from 2025 lidar (LidarBC Program, August 2025) inside each City footprint; where a tower rises from a podium, the tower is traced from the lidar and drawn on its own, and buildings demolished since the footprints were drawn are left out. Nothing here is invented: where a value is missing, the twin says so.