Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.
Digimap is an online map and data delivery service, available by subscription to UK Higher and Further Education establishments. Operated by EDINA at the University of Edinburgh, Digimap offers a number of data collections, including Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, aerial photography, LiDAR, marine maps, land cover mapping, global mapping and census data. For more information about Digimap go to our website: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk Background image Contains OS data (c) Crown Copyright and database right 2022
Launched as a BETA service on 20 April 2010, Historic Download is an entirely new facility allowing users to select and download larger quantities of historical map data.
The facility offers the capability to browse contemporary maps of the UK which have been shaded blue to indicate the coverage of historical maps of each series and edition. Areas of historical maps can be selected for download by clicking on the appropriate shaded polygons or by dragging a box to select multiple map sheets.
The interface has been designed to improve selection and retrieval of larger quantities of data for research projects. Build up a list of the data you need, choosing maps from different editions of a given product and take up to 200 maps in a single download.
EDINA welcomes feedback on this BETA service. You can contact us on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302.
Ancient Roam is a new mapping facility within Historic Digimap. It is based upon the Roam mapping client available from Digimap’s OS Collection and includes the standard features such as fixed scale map views, ‘slippy maps’, searching by place name, postcode and grid reference, easy to use zooming and comprehensive help.
Key features specific to Ancient Roam include the ability to select historical maps from any decade (depending on map coverage and availability) using the Timeline along the top of the map window. Ancient Roam also offers an easier means of identifying and selecting maps in areas where County Series overlap at County boundaries. A single click on the map will also query maps to display the year the map shown was published along with other information about the map.
New Town Plan Maps
The large scale Town Plans are now available to view in Ancient Roam and download from Historic Download. The Town Plans are the largest scale historical maps available from Digimap offering great detail at 1:500, 1:528 and 1:1056 scales. The coverage of these maps is limited in that only settlements with a population greater than 4000 at the time of surveying were mapped. It is interesting to see what were regarded, then, as “urban” areas. The detail captured is enlightening; individual trees are marked in parkland and many industrial and commercial uses of land and buildings are noted.
Beta Service
Currently available as a BETA service, Ancient Roam will continue to undergo development over the coming weeks. Proposed additional functions include:
PDF map creation for printing
My Maps, to enable bookmarking screen maps for future reference
Multiple historical map views, to enable comparison of maps of different dates
Map fade slider, to show transition between maps of different dates
The ability to download the original Map sheet data which makes up your current on-screen map view
EDINA would welcome feedback on the service and on these proposed developments. Please contact us on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302
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®)
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.
EDINA would like to remind you that booking is now open and there are spaces available on the following Digimap training courses, which are open to staff members in UK higher and further education institutions:
University of Manchester:
Guidance for site reps: 9 March 2010
Making maps in Digimap Collections: 10 March 2010
Downloading data from Digimap Collections 11 March 2010
Bilborough College, Nottingham:
Guidance for site reps: 7 April 2010
Making maps in Digimap Collections: 8 April 2010
Downloading data from Digimap Collections: 9 April 2010
You will find more details of course content and booking forms on EDINA’s Training and Events page . If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please contact EDINA for advice at edina@ed.ac.uk.
Yesterday, Tuesday 26 January 2010, some changes were made to Digimap. These are detailed as follows:
1. Classic removed from Ordnance Survey Collection.
As advertised on 5 October 2009 and 6 January 2010 this old facility has been removed and replaced by the new Roam facility. You can find a demonstration of Roam on the EDINA website: Roam demonstration
2. Historic Digimap “preview map sheet” button has been removed.
This function used out-of-date technology to render the original historical map sheets in the browser window. It was extremely slow and was dependent upon software installed on a machine which is being decommissioned. It is much quicker and more user-friendly to download the map sheet required and view it locally.
3. Marine Digimap Hydrospatial data updated.
The 2009 version of SeaZone’s Hydrospatial data is now available through Hydrospatial Download. Late delivery of the data has meant a delay of the release from September 2009 to January 2010.
MapAction is a a volunteer-based charity and non-governmental organisation which works in disaster zones providing frequently updated situation maps showing where relief help is most urgently needed.
The earthquake in Haiti has killed all but two members of the Haitian national mapping agency (the equivalent of Ordnance Survey). At Digimap’s 10th Anniversary event on 20th January 2010, Vanessa Lawrence, Ordnance Survey’s Chief Executive and Director General, took a moment to tell of the work that MapAction are doing in Haiti and encouraged donations to this cause.
Donations can be made online directly from the MapAction website: http://mapaction.org/.
The following may be of interest to those Digimap users who have ArcGIS 9.3.1 and are using raster catalogs.
ESRI have just released a patch fixing the issue with Microsoft SQL Server and Raster Catalogues. This works with ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1.
ESRI’s announcement is as follows:
“ESRI announces ArcSDE 9.3.1 SP1 SQL Server Raster Catalog and Raster Field Patch. This patch addresses the raster catalog display and raster field identify problem for SQL Server following the install of 9.3.1 sp1. We recommend that all who store raster catalogs or raster fields in ArcSDE for SQL Server download and install this Patch at their earliest convenience to ensure the highest quality experience when working with ArcSDE 9.3.1 Service Pack 1.”
We have recently noticed that some Hotmail accounts are rejecting emails from edina@ed.ac.uk as spam. This also includes emails which have been automatically forwarded to a Hotmail account from an institutional email account (.ac.uk).
This means that some users may not receive emails from which to download OS MasterMap data or their “Welcome to Digimap” registration confirmation.
If you believe you are not receiving emails from EDINA, please check that you have edina@ed.ac.uk in your Hotmail list of Safe Senders.
Author: 
