OS MasterMap background maps

OS MasterMap data is now available to download in a rasterised (image) format from Digimap's Data Download facility. If you need an image of OS MasterMap data (for example, as a backdrop map) but don't need the complexity of the original vector data, this new stuff is for you.

OS MasterMap – detailed but complex

OS MasterMap is the most detailed product offered by Ordnance Survey. Maps made with with OS MasterMap have been available through Digimap's mapping facilities since 2007, but if you wanted to use OS MasterMap as background for a customised map by overlaying your own data in a GIS you needed to download and convert the raw GML data. If all you want is a detailed colour background image, this seems like a significant investment of time.

Rasterised OS MasterMap - images not data

Digimap now offers OS MasterMap as .tif images at two scales: 1:1000 and 1:2000 through the usual Data Download facility. This saves you having to download, convert and import the data using specialist GIS software.

Where do I get the OS MasterMap raster background maps?

Log in to Digimap's OS Collection, go to Data Download and select which scale of OS MasterMap image you want from the list of products. The images are tiled in 1km square tiles, so you can select your area of interest, and the tiles covering it, in the same way as other tiled datasets.

The scales are determined according to the distance on the ground represented by each pixel. The larger scale images are based on a measurement of 0.3125m per pixel. The smaller scale images are based on a measurement of 0.625m per pixel. These equate to approximate scales of 1:1000 and 1:2000 respectively, although these are dependent on the screen resolution of your monitor. You can easily display the maps at other scales, but some loss of image quality may occur if you do.

Ordnance Survey request help on data usability

EDINA has been asked to post the following request for assistance from Ordnance Survey regarding the usability of particular datasets. Please follow the links below if you can help.

You may remember a similar survey being conducted in June 2010. This latest survey refers to different datasets.

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Hello,

My name is Michael Brown and I work for the Ordnance Survey research department. My work includes the development and application of methods to improve the usability of OS products. I am currently exploring the use of questionnaires to evaluate the usability of our products and guide their further development. If you have any experience of the following Ordnance Survey products please follow the links provided and complete the questionnaire. Each should only take a few minutes to complete, and I would appreciate it if you could complete as many as you can.

OS MasterMap® Integrated Transport Network Layer™
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMM-ITN

OS MasterMap® Topography Layer
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMM-Topo

OS OpenData™ Boundary-Line™
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSOD-BL

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time.

Dr. Michael Brown
Usability Specialist
Research, L1F2, Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive, SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, SO16 0AS
michael.brown@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Data Usability - request for help

EDINA has been asked to post the following request for assistance regarding the usability of geographic information. Please follow the links below if you can help.

---

Hey Everyone,

My name is Michael Brown; I'm working with the University of Nottingham in conjunction with Ordnance Survey to develop a set of User Centred Design Tools for use with Geographic Information.

As part of this I am currently working on a questionnaire for the measurement of the Usability of Geographic Information. The next stage of this process is to validate the questionnaire by getting people to complete it, focusing on a few specific products. This will allow me to calculate how well it differentiates between different GI data sets as well as providing useful information about the products that will be fed back to Ordnance Survey.

I'm focusing this validation on 3 products.

1. OS MasterMap- Topography: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMMtopo
2. OS MasterMap- Imagery: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMMimagery
3. OS 1:50,000 Scale Colour Raster: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/50kRaster

If you have any experience with any of these products, I'd appreciate your help. Please follow the relevant link(s) and complete the questionnaire(s). This version is fairly short and should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

Feel free to complete more than one of them and please forward this on to anyone you think might be able to help me collect responses. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at: michael.brown@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Thank you for the help

Michael

Land-Form PROFILE tiles updated

Over the years some problems have been reported with a few Land-Form PROFILE data tiles. Ordnance Survey have now provided us with updated versions of these tiles for which the problems have been fixed. The following tiles have been updated for both DTM and contour data:

hp50sw	nm80nw	nm80sw	nm87ne	nm87nw
nt87sw	ny47se	ny57sw	ny87sw	sd61ne
ss30ne	ss30nw	ss30se	ss30sw	ss31se
ss31sw	ss40sw	st20nw	st30se	st40ne
st40se	st50ne	st50nw	st50se	st57se
st76se	st85nw	st86nw	st86sw	sx39nw
sx49nw	sx57ne	sx57se	sy49ne	sy59nw

Thanks to those who have reported the errors in the data.

OS OpenData

EDINA welcomes the release of Ordnance Survey datasets for free use and re-use. We are actively working to realise to the full the opportunities offered by this new policy for the enhancement and development of new and existing services for research and education.




As many will already know the Government published details on 31 March 2010 of the package of datasets and products from Ordnance Survey that are now available under OS OpenData - see http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/opendata/. The list coincides partially with the datasets currently available through EDINA Digimap – see below. Note especially that OS MasterMap, the large-scale vector data, is only available through registration with EDINA Digimap.





The key task for EDINA Digimap is to provide ease and continuity of access to a whole range of geo-spatial datasets, including re-use in materials that are shared in research and teaching. We are therefore seeking clarification from Ordnance Survey regarding the licence terms that can now apply to the data available through Digimap which are now covered under OS OpenData.





The release of many Ordnance Survey datasets as open data is also good news for Unlock, the EDINA service which is there to help you geo-enable research data and other Internet-accessible documents and images. Unlock, and its predecessor GeoCrossWalk, were previously limited by license to academic use only. Relevant datasets now regarded as open data, including Boundary-Line, Code-Point® Open and the 1:50 000 gazetteer of place names, can now be used by Unlock Places, Unlock Text and Unlock Geocodes.





We are keen to learn from users of Digimap how you wish us to take best advantage of these changes in availability and licensing. Contact us by email on edina@ed.ac.uk or leave a comment on this blog.

Product Name	EDINA Digimap	OS OpenData
OS MasterMap Topography	Yes	No
OS MasterMap ITN	Yes	No
1:10 000 Scale Raster	Yes	No nearest equivalent is OS StreetView
1:25 000 Scale Colour Raster	Yes	No
1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster	Yes	No
1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster	Yes	Yes
MiniScale®	Yes	Yes
Meridian™2	Yes	Yes
Strategi®	Yes	Yes
Land-Form PANORAMA® Contours	Yes	Yes
Land-Form PANORAMA® DTM	Yes	No
Land-Form PROFILE®	Yes	No
Boundary-Line®	Yes	Yes
Code-Point®	Yes	No
CodePoint® with Polygons	Yes	No
Code-Point® Open (point data only; subset of Code-Point®)	No	Yes
1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer	Yes	Yes
OS StreetView	No nearest equivalent is 1:10 000 Scale Raster	Yes
OS Locator	No	Yes
OS VectorMap District (from 1 May 2010)	No	Yes

New Products added to Data Download

MiniScale and 1:250 000 Raster data are now available in Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection Data Download facility.

The datasets have been available from the ShareGeo service for some time, but are now also available from within Digimap. In addition to the new products you can now also:

• download the OS Land-Form PROFILE, 1:10 000 Contour data in DXF format
• download Shapefile and MID/MIF versions of Meridian2 data

The new Meridian2 formats have their own entry on the Product & Format page of Data Download. These formats are available as national coverage, with a single download covering the whole of Great Britain. The NTF and DXF formats are still available as individual tiles.

Land-Line style maps available in Carto

Maps of OS MasterMap data in Carto can now be styled to look like previous Land-Line.Plus maps. This is particularly useful for black and white printing or to recreate Land-Line.Plus data for comparison with older printed maps.

What do you know about postcodes?

There is a lot to know about UK postcodes! Here are some interesting key facts:

• There are around 2 million postcodes in the UK, covering something like 29 million addresses.


• A postcode is made up of four constituent parts. Take the postcode EH9 1PR as an example:


• The postcode Area is indicated by the initial one or two letters: EH
• The post District is indicated by the one or two numbers following the Area: EH9
• The postcode Sector is indicated by the number after the District: EH9 1
• The postcode Unit is indicated by the full postcode: EH9 1PR


• Some buildings can contain delivery addresses with different postcodes. High-rise residential buildings are a good example of these. As far as the Code-Point dataset is concerned these are called Vertical Streets, and their boundaries are recorded as regular squares. These are clearly visible when the postcode boundaries are mapped.


• Usually postcodes cover around 15 delivery addresses, although this isn't a hard and fast rule.


• Some postcodes apply to only one address or building. Ordnance Survey's postcode is SO16 4GU. Buckingham Palace also has it's own postcode, SW1A 1AA, and 10 Downing Street's postcode is SW1A 2AA. The House of Commons is SW1A 0AA


• Postcode unit boundaries (which form the OS Code-Point Polygons dataset) are mathematically calculated around a centroid and are not based on physical boundaries visible on the ground. This centroid is calculated using the coordinates for the delivery points in each postcode. These are not necessarily the precise geographic coordinats of the letterbox in your front door!


• The Code-Point dataset offered through Digimap provides much more information than just the postcode and the coordinates of it's centroid. Additional information includes the NHS Region code, Ward name, how many delivery addresses are in that postcode, how many of those are domestic or business delivery points. The range of information given is different for Scotland from England and Wales.


• These enable you to link additional information to the postcode if it is already associated with a code common to the postcode dataset e.g. you can identify which postcodes are associated with data you have collected using Ward codes.


• You can use Digimap's Postcode Query facility (in the Ordnance Survey Collection) to look up the additional information about a particular postcode.


• You can use Digimap's Boundary Download facility to download the Code-Point data and the associated polygons.