Author: ecls

Global Digimap: a new collection

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features

On 1st August 2018 EDINA launched a new Digimap Collection, one that aims to provide data for the whole world, not just Great Britain.

Global Digimap is now available as a beta service as we look to build a suite of datasets, themes and formats that best meets the needs of our users. We will continue to develop the Global Digimap service over the coming months, shaped by the feedback that you give.

During this development phase, and in return for engagement with the development process, the service will be free of charge for institutions that subscribe to another Digimap Collection. We would like to know what you like and don’t like about it, what features and what new data you would like to see added.  We can’t promise to include everything but the more we hear from you the better able we are to prioritise different requirements and create the best possible service.

“We are developing this service in partnership with the community; it will be subject to continuous improvements.  Please keep checking back to see how it develops; please keep the feedback coming; please be understanding if the service is different today from yesterday!”

Below are details about the data and service available now, and what we plan to include in the short term. It is never too early to let us know what else you would like to see, we are very keen to hear from you; our contact details are at the bottom of this post.

Overview

The service is currently built around two key datasets, OpenStreetMap and Natural Earth, but we will be looking to add more on your recommendation. We will also be using the two familiar Digimap interfaces, Roam and Data Download to provide access to the data.

OpenStreetMap

This is a global dataset created by contributors either volunteering their time or working on projects that are adding information to the dataset. Feature types and attribute information is carried mostly in a single data column as tags in the data’s raw format. We have created our own instance of the data which we update on a daily basis. From our own database we will be creating a set of more usable data tables each weekend, to provide users with data to download in more usable themes.

There is an amazing amount of information in OpenStreetMap but it is quite inconsistent; there are areas where the quantity and quality of mapping is incredible, most of Germany is covered in great detail and Edinburgh too. There are of course other areas where not much detail has been captured at all, however the great thing about OpenStreetMap is that you can contribute and capture the data yourself. The data should never be considered to be definitive but in many cases it is the best data, sometimes the only data, available for a location.

We have categorised OpenStreetMap data so that we can deliver it in a set of themes for download:  Buildings, Landuse, Natural Places, Place of Worship, Points of Interest, Railways, Roads, Traffic, Transport, Water, Waterways. We are also hoping to add Addresses and Administrative Boundaries as layers soon too.

We will provide the data in Geopackage and File Geodatabase formats for ease of use in QGIS and ArcGIS but hope to add DWG format data too. The DWG format will mean that  building outlines from around the globe will be available for CAD users.

We are also creating cartographies for the data so that you can view, annotate and print it using the Global Roam interface.

Natural Earth

Natural Earth data is a curated set of small scale, (1:10m, 1:50m and 1:110m)  mapping datasets that are great for using in overview maps or to show global analysis. This is an Open dataset so can be used for any purpose, not just academic. We will be using the Natural Earth data in Global Roam and Global Download as the interface maps at the most zoomed out levels.

As we have the data we will be providing through the download interface which will be a more convenient way to get multiple layers of data than the Natural Earth website. When we introduce clipping of vector data downloads in the future this will add a very useful dimension. This will enable you to select your own areas of data rather than having to take global coverage.

What can I see now?

Global Download

The download interface will allow you to take OpenStreetMap data in Geopackage and File Geodatabase formats. There is the ability to select themes limiting the number of features you get in your data. Not all the OpenStreetMap data falls into one of the themes but we are working to incorporate as much as possible. As such the themes are subject to change.

Going forward we will be adding the Natural Earth Data and others requested by users where possible. We will also be looking for feedback on new themes to add to the OpenStreetMap data and extra feature types to add to existing themes.

Global Roam (Coming Soon!)

The familiar Roam interface with the usual annotation tools and a global search will be added to the collection very shortly. The most zoomed out maps will use Natural Earth Data which will change to OpenStreetMap as you zoom in. We will be creating grey-scale and colour themes, but we want to grow this range quickly. Our print interface will be integrated, allowing high quality printed maps up to A0 too though this will come later. We also plan to allow customisation of the maps using the groups and themes we develop, later in the year.

What we’d like you to tell us:

Global Digimap is going to be a collaborative project between the academic community and EDINA.  We want to produce a service that will meet the needs of the majority of the community, making global datasets accessible to as broad an audience as possible for teaching and research. This is ambitious and we accept that we won’t be able to meet everyone’s needs all the time, however if you never let us know what they are we won’t have a chance to try.

Are there any other datasets you like to see us include in this collection?

If you know of global datasets that you’d like to see in the collection please let us know. We aren’t always able to include datasets but we will try to include any that are possible. Please note that many Open datasets have non-redistribution clauses that prevent us from simply delivering them through Digimap. However it is always worth bringing them to our attention as we may be able to secure an exemption.

Are there any additional Themes you want us to make available for download?

OpenStreetMap data is huge and very complex, so if there is any way we can make it more accessible then let us know. We are aware that many features have been captured in different ways in different countries, regions or sometimes simply by different people. We are also aware that it is difficult to get large areas of the data with all the features you need or in the format you want If there is a particular subset of features that you need then let us know. If there is wider demand for this then we will aim to create them for the service.

What basemap styles would you like to see in Roam?

We would like to see the OpenStreetMap data utilised to its full potential and so we would like to create different basemaps to highlight different feature types. If you’d like a basemap that highlights natural features like forests, marshes and protected areas;  one for road networks;  residential, commercial and industrial zones; or perhaps a heritage and antiquities basemap then we’d like to hear from you. If you have already done some work with OpenStreetMap to create a particular style for your field of study then we’d be very interested if you would like to share your work to make the style more widely available through Digimap.

What formats suit the research you want to carry out?

For OpenStreetMap we are aiming to cover GIS and CAD with the Geopackage, File Geodatabase and DWG formats. However if there are other formats you’d really like to see then please let us know.  We appreciate that many users may like to see Shapefile formatted data and if demand is strong enough we may provide some limited feature sets in this format. Do note that the file size and geometry type limitations of Shapefiles don’t make them ideal for OpenStreetMap data.

Natural Earth vector data comes supplied as Shapefile so we will pass this format on to users, we will look to convert the data in to other appropriate vector formats like Geopackage and File Geodatabase. We will also be looking to clip these datasets to the area defined by the user in the interface, to keep download sizes small and to make the data fit the users requirements more closely.

Natural Earth Raster Data comes supplied as GeoTiffs and again we will make these available for download. If there are any other raster formats that you need then please get in touch. Again we will be looking to clip these datasets to the user defined area in the interface.

Get in touch

This is what we have planned but there is scope for so much more, so please get in touch with your ideas so we can start to build something amazing:

  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk [Subject: Global Digimap]
  • Phone: 0131 650 3302

 

New Digimap home page coming soon

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest

Digimap is launching a fresh, new-look home page on 1st August 2018. All the functionality of the current page will still be available and easy to find, but the new page will look like this:

Links to each Digimap Collection run horizontally across the top of the page, rather than vertically down the left hand side, leaving room for future developments.

As with the current homepage, login is possible either using the login button in the top right corner or by accessing each Roam or Data Download application directly.

There is also now a bold image illustrating the maps and data in each collection, making it clear what to expect when you access the service.

“Access maps and data in just two clicks: select the collection first, then the application you need.”

 

The left hand column has expanded to include more information about the maps and data in each collection. It also provides more detail on how to access the maps and data and easier links to help information.  Our objective was to provide a better insight into the content of each Collection, inspiring ideas and showcasing some of the data available.

Access to Roam and Data Download will continue to be easy using the big buttons on the right hand side.  You will also be able to access previous versions of applications, as you can now, below the current versions, and the existing user registration system remains unchanged.  We have endeavoured to make better use of the space on each page, offering a fresh new look while maintaining a clear and easy route to access all facilities.

As ever, we welcome any feedback on Digimap:

 

Marine Digimap: data changes for August 2018

ecls/ / Digimap News

The data available through Marine Digimap is changing on 1 August 2018.

Image of OceanWise Marine Themes vector data
(c) British Crown and OceanWise, 2018. All rights reserved. Licence number EK001-20180802. Not to be used for navigation.

From 1st August 2018, Marine Digimap will offer data from OceanWise Ltd., specialists in marine environmental data. The new data offers almost identical content and will be available for both mapping and data download. Regular data updates will also be supplied.

The data currently available (until 31 July 2018) is licensed by SeaZone, whose data products have been discontinued for both new sales and renewals. This means that the SeaZone data cannot be provided beyond the end of current licences.

Watch this space for more information about the data change. As ever, we are happy to answer any questions you may have. Our contact details are below.

 

Fresh faced new Data Download

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest

We are delighted to announce that a new version of Digimap’s Data Download is now available.   This is a “beta” version so we will keep the current interface running while you explore the new improved service. We know that teaching and support materials may need to be updated so we hope that a transition period will help.

Data Download takes it’s new fresh-faced look from the recent updates to Roam, Digimap’s mapping facility.  The search bar is now at the top left hand side and all the action happens in the variable width side panel below it.  A big improvement is that you now have more ways to specify the area of data you need. In addition to defining a rectangle, you can now create an irregular polygon as your area of interest or a buffer zone from a point or line that you define. We’ve also added a “Locate Me” button* to help you easily find data for the area local to you.

The panel on the left now shows a straightforward and easy-to-use list of all available data and shows more clearly how much data can be selected in a single request, along with the availability grids for each product.

As ever, you can add multiple products to any data order, selecting the format, version and date from the basket prior to submitting your order.  As a new feature, you can now request your data to be sent to you as a single download, or for each dataset to be sent as soon as it’s ready.

Remember Digimap has a lot of previous versions of several datasets, dating back to 1999 in some cases. If you are interested in data for a specific date, use the Version drop down menu in the basket to access the archives.

We welcome any feedback you may have on the new interface;  please get in touch:

*Note that the Locate Me function may not work using Internet Explorer 11

Privacy Policy Update

ecls/ / Digimap News

In line with the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which come into effect on Friday 25th May 2018, we have updated our Privacy Policy for Digimap. You can find a copy of it here:

http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/digimapsupport/about.htm#access/privacypolicy.htm

This document describes what personal information we collect and how we use that information.

If you would like us to contact you with information about new products and services EDINA may offer you can check your communication preferences by logging in to Digimap, going to My Digimap in the top right hand corner and selecting Change User Details.

 

We will still send you important service related messages, such as the addition of new data products, maintenance periods and the introduction of new functions and features. If you choose to unsubscribe from one of our emails, though, you may not get these messages

Aerial Imagery Data available by Year

ecls/ / Data Changes & Additions, Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest

You can now search and download the imagery data from Aerial Digimap by the year it was flown.

This allows you to be sure that you are downloading only the latest data, but it also allows you to download multiple images for the same location taken on different dates. We currently have data from 1998 through to 2016, with more English and Welsh images coming for 2016. When you are in Aerial Download you can see the extents of each year using the Show Availability Grid tool on the right side of the map as shown in the image above.

There is a table below detailing how many 1x1km images there are for each year, with the majority coming from 2013 to 2016, but some of the older images will be very useful to compare to the newer ones where they overlap:

Year Number of Images
1998 165
2000 855
2001 891
2002 75
2003 11
2005 423
2006 4,620
2007 7,799
2008 5,757
2009 25,066
2010 35,607
2011 18,642
2012 16,619
2013 54,534
2014 71,404
2015 81,378
2016 18,769

 

Here are two images of Lerwick taken 8 years apart:

Lerwick 2008 from Aerial Digimap
Lerwick 2008 from Aerial Digimap.
Lerwick 2016 from Aerial Digimap
Lerwick 2016 from Aerial Digimap.

As you can see there has been construction in the West of the area with new buildings and car parks added.

We hope that you find the ability to make this sort of comparison useful for your research. If you have any questions about this or any other aspects of the Digimap service then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk
  • Phone: 0131 650 3302

Updating Roam: 17 May 2018

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Service Availability

EDINA is very pleased to announce that Digimap Roam will be updated on Thursday 17th May 2018 to the new version currently available as beta. This change will apply to all Digimap Collections.  The beta version has been available since November 2017 and as a result of feedback we have continued to improve it, adding some useful new features:

  • A “locate me” button – puts a pin on the map according to your current location
  • A “coordinate capture” tool – under Map Information, allows you to click a point and copy/paste the coordinates into other applications
  • A Variable width side panel to offer a larger map window

We are very excited about the new Roam, which has a fresher feel and a more modern look; it’s tablet-friendly with tools that are easier to find and use.  All the main functions are located in the top left hand area, with a pull-out side panel ensuring maximum visibility of the map.

The new version of Roam will appear at the top of the list of applications in each Collection and will be labelled “Updated”. The previous version for each Collection will still be available until 31st July 2018:

We will be running a webinar about the new version of Roam on Wednesday 23 May from 1- 2pm. You can register for this here http://edina.ac.uk/training-and-events. Places are limited, but the webinar will be recorded and available to view later on our YouTube channel. Help pages for the new version of Roam will also be available.

As ever, we welcome feedback on Digimap. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch using any of our social media channels or use our email address or telephone number:

OS MasterMap Building Height Data gets significant update

ecls/ / Data Changes & Additions, Digimap News, Of Interest
new building height coverage
Building Height Coverage

Ordnance Survey have released nearly 5000 extra 5km squares of building height data, with the total coverage increasing from 2578 to 7302. Each square has at least one building with height attributes added, with most fully covered. We have added this data to Digimap’s Data Download facility allowing you easy access to the data you need.

The Building Heights data is available from Data Download in a range of formats created especially for Digimap users. The most straightforward to use are DWG, File Geodatabase and KML which can be viewed directly in CAD, GIS and Google Earth respectively. You can also take the data as a CSV list that can be joined to the attribute table of any existing MasterMap Building data you have, using the TOID identifier. This means that you don’t have to recreate your project work with new data if you have already spent a lot of time working on it; as long as the buildings still have a TOID in their attribute data you can add the height information to it.

The Building Heights data is ideal for anyone working with the MasterMap data in 3D and has a range of applications in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Environmental Modelling, Archaeological Reconstructions and many more different disciplines. Here are a couple of examples:

OS MasterMap Topography Layer Building Height Attribute data on top of OS Terrain 5 Contours
OS MasterMap Topography Layer Building Height Attribute data on top of OS Terrain 5 Contours

 

3D model using Aerial Imagery, OS Terrain 5 DTM and MasterMap Building Height Attribute
3D model using Aerial Imagery, OS Terrain 5 DTM and MasterMap Building Heights Data

 

Points of Interest now easier to download

ecls/ / Data Changes & Additions, Digimap News, New Features

The Points of Interest (PoI) data is great for research and you can make fantastic looking maps too as we have been showcasing on our twitter account. You have certainly been making the most of it too, with 16,877 PoI downloads being made since May 2015. Here are 3 dot density maps we made to show a single class of PoI data:

Points of Interest: Camping and Caravanning Dot Density mapPoints of Interest: Cattle Grids Dot Density mapPoints of Interest: Allotments Dot Density Map

However until today you had to take all the different classes of points for your specified area and you were limited to taking no more than 10,000 Km2 in a single download. As PoI data is split into 9 groups, 52 categories and over 600 classes (see the full scheme here), we though it would make things easier if we exposed some of this hierarchy in Digimap’s Data Download service.

You can now select one or more of the groups or categories to download, taking some of the data processing load off you and making your downloads more manageable. Being able to filter the features in your download by group or category means smaller downloads so we have also removed the limit on the area you can take; you can now take the whole country in one download if you want.

One note of caution though, the PoI data has around 4.5 million records and is over 1gb in size as a simple CSV file. So if you are taking national coverage you may want to only take one group or a few categories to minimise the amount of data you are dealing with.

To select a group or category of features simply add PoI data to your basket then use the drop down menu in the layers column to choose what you are interested in.

Points of Interest data in the digimap download basket

We hope that you find this change really improves the accessibility of the Points of Interest data, we look forward to seeing some of the interesting analyses and maps you produce!

Digimap for Digital Humanities: An event at King’s College London

ecls/ / Digimap News, Training & Events

Bush HouseEDINA were delighted to co-host an event with King’s College London exploring the benefits of Digimap.  We were joined by a full complement of staff and students from both King’s College and other neighbouring universities at the impressive Bush House, and would like to offer our warmest thanks to staff at King’s College for making the arrangements.

We heard two fascinating talks from Dr Stuart Dunn (KCL) and Dr Stuart Brookes (UCL).  Dr Dunn talked about the identification and mapping of corpse roads by combining different types of data from a variety of sources, including historical texts and map data from Digimap. These ancient pathways exist in several areas of the country but their location is shrouded in the mists of folklore.

 

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Dr Brookes gave a fabulous insight into how our reading of historical landscapes can explain and inform the development of our country today and how maps and spatial data play a key part in this analysis. Not only can this analysis explain the past but can also begin to predict future developments.  In particular he demonstrated how spatial data has assisted in demonstrating how ancient roads have impacted the growth of modern day transport networks and urban areas.

 

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EDINA’s Director, Janet Roberts, gave a short talk about the value of Digimap and the use of data, highlighting particularly the importance of data skills to graduate employability and economic activity in both the short and medium term.

Both Dr Dunn and Dr Brookes have made use of a range of data from Digimap in their research and demonstrated the immense value that Digimap can bring to so many aspects of research and teaching. Having a wide range of data available in one place, with support available from EDINA, makes maps and map data easily accessible and usable for all staff and students from any discipline, novice and expert user alike.

This event was held in part to help broaden the use of Digimap at King’s College into more departments. There is a recognition that Digimap is a key resource at a high level at King’s College…

“An astonishing resource to have available which could be useful to all sorts of surprising research and teaching contexts across the faculty”

Professor Simon Tanner, Pro Vice Dean (Impact & Innovation), Arts & Humanities

… so we were very happy to do what we could to help. If you would like to showcase your own use of Digimap and promote the use of maps and spatial data throughout your institution, please get in touch (edina@ed.ac.uk). We look forward to co-hosting other similar events elsewhere.