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Vector Tiles

What are Vector Tiles?

Vector tiles are a modern way to deliver geospatial data over the web. Instead of rendering a static image on a server, the raw geometry and attribute data is sent to the client in small, pre-defined tile chunks — and rendered dynamically in the browser or GIS application.

This approach offers several advantages:

  • Fast and scalable — only the tiles visible in the current viewport are requested, making it efficient even for very large datasets
  • Fully interactive — because the raw data is delivered, features remain queryable and styleable on the client side
  • Resolution-independent — vector tiles look sharp at any zoom level or screen resolution
  • Widely supported — most modern GIS tools and web mapping libraries support the Mapbox Vector Tiles (MVT) standard natively

Vector tiles are ideal when you want to visualize a dataset on a map — whether in a desktop GIS or a custom web application — without downloading the entire dataset.

Getting the Vector Tile URL for a Dataset

Every dataset on the Ocean Data Platform that contains a table with geometry can be accessed as vector tiles.

To get the URL for a dataset:

  1. Open the dataset page on app.hubocean.earth
  2. Click Use Dataset
  3. Select Vector Tiles
  4. Copy the URL — it will look like this:

Generic format: 

https://api.hubocean.earth/api/table/v2/tile?table_id={your-dataset-uuid}&z={z}&x={x}&y={y}

Example (List of Seamount Bases in the World Oceans dataset): 

https://api.hubocean.earth/api/table/v2/tile?table_id=8de642cc-03d9-4538-a6d4-8260e49df597&z={z}&x={x}&y={y}

The {z}, {x}, and {y} placeholders are the standard slippy map tile coordinates and will be filled in automatically by your GIS tool or web map library. The table_id parameter is the dataset UUID, visible in the dataset page URL.

Authentication

For datasets that are not publicly shared, requests to the vector tile endpoint require an API key passed as a header: 

Authorization: ApiKey YOUR_API_KEY
You can generate an API key on your Account page.

Explore in the ODP Map Explorer

Every dataset with geometry can also be visualized directly in the ODP Map Explorer — no setup required. The Map Explorer URL uses the dataset UUID:

Generic format: 

https://app.hubocean.earth/map_explorer/{your-dataset-uuid}

Example (List of Seamount Bases in the World Oceans dataset): https://app.hubocean.earth/map_explorer/8de642cc-03d9-4538-a6d4-8260e49df597

Replace the UUID with the one from your dataset page URL. This is a quick way to preview the data before connecting it to a GIS tool or web map.

ODP Map Explorer showing the List of Seamount Bases in the World Oceans dataset

Using Vector Tiles in a GIS Tool

QGIS

  1. Open the Data Source Manager (Layer → Data Source Manager or Ctrl+L)
  2. Select Vector Tile from the left panel
  3. Click New → New Generic Connection
  4. Fill in the connection:
    • Name: any descriptive name
    • URL: paste the vector tile URL from the dataset page
  5. If the dataset requires authentication, open the Authentication tab and add an API key header:
    • Header: Authorization
    • Value: ApiKey YOUR_API_KEY
  6. Click OK, then Connect
  7. Select the layer and click Add

QGIS with an ODP vector tile layer loaded

ArcGIS Pro

  1. In the Catalog pane, right-click Servers → New Vector Tile Service Connection
  2. Paste the vector tile URL into the Server URL field
  3. If authentication is required, configure the connection to pass the Authorization: ApiKey YOUR_API_KEY header
  4. Click OK — the layer will appear as a vector tile layer in your map

ArcGIS and MVT

ArcGIS Pro supports the MVT standard natively from version 2.6+. If you are on an older version, consider upgrading or using QGIS.

Using Vector Tiles in a Web Application

ODP vector tiles follow the standard MVT format and can be consumed by all major web mapping libraries. Depending on the geometry type of your dataset and the level of interactivity or styling you need, there are several options:

  • MapLibre GL JS — the most capable open-source option; supports full custom styling, filtering, and click interactions for points, lines, and polygons
  • Deck.gl — high-performance rendering for large datasets, good for data-heavy visualizations
  • Leaflet + VectorGrid plugin — lightweight option for simpler use cases
  • Embedding via iframe — if you host a map built with any of the above, it can be embedded in any webpage or CMS with a standard <iframe> tag

The MapLibre GL JS quickstart is a good starting point — add the vector tile URL as a source of type "vector" with source-layer: "default".

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