> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://whitepaper.nextearth.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://whitepaper.nextearth.io/chapter-ii/pillars-of-the-metaverse/virtual-land/tiles.md).

# Tiles

The grid layer on the map is represented by approximately 10m x 10m rectangles (called "tiles") calculated by the Mercator projection, which is a cylindrical map projection. 

\
It allows for the translation of the latitude and longitude based system of the Earth into a 2D map.\
Every tile has a unique id which clearly determines its position on the map including the boundary box’s latitude and longitude values. This unique ID is also calculated based on the Mercator projection and on the Mapbox tile system. 

All tiles are classified into three classes: Urban, Non-Urban, Water 

**Urban Tile:** we define urban tile as a tile which is inside a country’s border and has approximately a 1 square kilometer boundary box that has at least one Poi. The Poi database that we use is extracted from the OpenStreetMap dataset.

**Non-Urban Tile:** every tile inside a country’s border which is not urban tile

**Water Tile:** every tile which is not inside in a country’s border


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