How to determine if a road is paved or unpaved using HERE Location Services

Summary
-------

HERE Location Services do not provide a direct "paved/unpaved" flag in standard APIs such as Routing, Geocoding & Search, or Maps APIs.

To determine whether a road is paved or unpaved, you must use the HERE Map Attributes API, which exposes low-level road attributes—including surface information—when available.

---

Solution
--------

### Step 1: Use the Map Attributes API

Query the Map Attributes API for road segments around a specific coordinate using a proximity search.

Example request:

<br />https://smap.hereapi.com/v8/maps/attributes?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY&layers=LINK_ATTRIBUTE_FC5∈=proximity:55.98135,24.729898;r=50<br />

---

### Step 2: Interpret the response

Look for the PAVED attribute in the response.
Possible values:
+ PAVED = Y → Road is paved
+ PAVED = N → Road is unpaved

Example interpretation:

"PAVED": "Y" → The road segment is paved

---

### Step 3: Handle missing attributes

If the PAVED attribute is not present:
+ HERE does not guarantee surface information for that road.
+ This is expected, especially for:
- Local roads
- Rural areas
- Regions with limited coverage

---

Important Notes
---------------

Surface type data is only returned when explicitly available in HERE map data.
There is no fallback or derived logic (e.g., road class ≠ surface type).
Unpaved roads are identified only when the dataset explicitly marks them.

---

When to use this approach
-------------------------

Use the Map Attributes API if you need:

Road surface classification for logistics or routing customization
Off-road or terrain-aware applications
Data validation beyond standard routing capabilities

---

References
----------

HERE Map Attributes API – Quick Start
https://www.here.com/docs/bundle/map-attributes-api-developer-guide/page/topics/quick-start.html
HERE Map Attributes API – API Reference
https://www.here.com/docs/bundle/here-map-attributes-api-api-reference/page/index.html#tag/MapAttributes-V8/operation/v8GetMapAttributes

---

Tags
----

map-attributes-api, road-surface, paved-unpaved, here-location-services, routing-data, coverage-limitations