Zones API¶

The Zones API lists MeshMapper regions and serves their boundaries as GeoJSON. Use it to show MeshMapper regions on your own map, link to them, or keep a local copy of their outlines. No key is needed.

Two endpoints work together:

get_zones.php on meshmapper.net lists the regions in one country, without boundaries.
get_geojson.php on each region's own site returns that region's boundary.

Call the first one, then fetch url + "get_geojson.php" for each region you want.

Fair use

Both endpoints are public, cached for an hour, and rate limited to 60 requests per minute per IP address (shared between the two). Cache the results, respect ETag, and don't poll more than once an hour. Accessing anything that isn't a published API, or scraping pages for data, is not allowed; see the warning on the Coverage API page.

List regions¶

GET https://meshmapper.net/get_zones.php?country=CA

Parameter	Required	Description
`country`	Yes	Two-letter country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, e.g. `CA`, `US`, `GB`). Case doesn't matter.

Only enabled regions are listed. Regions that are pending or turned off never appear.

Response¶

{
  "generated_at": "2026-09-25T15:00:00Z",
  "country": "CA",
  "count": 3,
  "zones": [
    { "code": "YOW", "name": "Ottawa, CA", "short_name": "Ottawa", "country": "CA",
      "lat": 45.4215, "lon": -75.6972, "url": "https://yow.meshmapper.net/",
      "has_boundary": true, "group": null },
    { "code": "YVR", "name": "Vancouver, CA", "short_name": "Vancouver", "country": "CA",
      "lat": 49.2827, "lon": -123.1207, "url": "https://yvr.meshmapper.net/",
      "has_boundary": true, "group": "PNW" },
    { "code": "YQB", "name": "Quebec City, CA", "short_name": "Quebec City", "country": "CA",
      "lat": 46.8139, "lon": -71.208, "url": "https://yqb.meshmapper.net/",
      "has_boundary": false, "group": null }
  ],
  "groups": [
    { "code": "PNW", "name": "Pacific Northwest", "members": ["SEA", "YVR"],
      "url": "https://pnw.meshmapper.net/" }
  ]
}

Zone fields¶

Field	Description
`code`	Region code, uppercase. Usually three letters, but can be 2 to 6 letters or digits.
`name`	Region name as MeshMapper stores it, including the country suffix.
`short_name`	`name` without the `, CC` country suffix.
`country`	Two-letter country code.
`lat`, `lon`	The region's center point.
`url`	The region's MeshMapper site. Append `get_geojson.php` for its boundary.
`has_boundary`	`true` when the region has a drawn boundary. When `false`, `get_geojson.php` returns the region with `geometry: null`.
`group`	The multi-region group this region belongs to (see Multiregions), or `null`.

Group fields¶

groups lists each group that contains at least one of the listed regions. members is the group's full member list, which can include regions from other countries (SEA above).

Field	Description
`code`	Group code, uppercase.
`name`	Group name.
`members`	Region codes in the group.
`url`	The group's MeshMapper site. Its `get_geojson.php` returns every member.

Region boundary¶

GET https://yow.meshmapper.net/get_geojson.php

Returns a GeoJSON FeatureCollection (RFC 7946):

On a region site: one Feature, for that region.
On a group site (e.g. pnw.meshmapper.net): one Feature per member region.

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "generated_at": "2026-09-25T15:00:00Z",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Polygon",
        "coordinates": [[
          [-75.912345, 45.201234], [-75.401234, 45.198765],
          [-75.398765, 45.612345], [-75.912345, 45.201234]
        ]]
      },
      "properties": {
        "code": "YOW", "name": "Ottawa, CA", "short_name": "Ottawa", "country": "CA",
        "center": [-75.6972, 45.4215], "radius_km": 42, "has_boundary": true,
        "url": "https://yow.meshmapper.net/"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Coordinates are [longitude, latitude], as GeoJSON requires, rounded to 6 decimals (about 10 cm). The outline is never simplified.
The geometry is always a single Polygon.
A region with no drawn boundary has "geometry": null and has_boundary: false. MeshMapper doesn't draw a circle in its place, but center and radius_km are there if you want one.
center is [longitude, latitude] too.

Caching¶

Both endpoints send Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600 and an ETag. To check for changes cheaply, send the ETag back in If-None-Match; you'll get 304 Not Modified with no body if nothing changed. generated_at changes on every response and isn't part of the ETag.

Errors¶

Errors are JSON: {"error": "<code>"}.

Status	`error`	Meaning
400	`country_required`	`get_zones.php` was called without `country`.
400	`invalid_country`	`country` isn't two letters.
404	`zone_not_found`	The region is unknown, pending or turned off.
429	`rate_limited`	Over 60 requests in a minute. Wait for the `Retry-After` header (seconds).
503	`unavailable`	Temporary server problem. Try again later.

Example¶

Fetch every Canadian region with a boundary into one GeoJSON file:

import json, httpx

zones = httpx.get("https://meshmapper.net/get_zones.php", params={"country": "CA"}).json()
features = []
for z in zones["zones"]:
    if z["has_boundary"]:
        fc = httpx.get(z["url"] + "get_geojson.php").json()
        features.extend(fc["features"])
json.dump({"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": features}, open("meshmapper-ca.geojson", "w"))