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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
Scotland’s Greenspace Map is now available to download through the Data Download application in the Ordnance Survey Collection of Digimap.
Scotland’s Greenspace Map, coastline taken from GB National Outlines from Ordnance Survey.
Scotland’s Greenspace Map provides information about the type and extent of greenspace in urban Scotland (i.e. towns and cities with a population of over 3000). It was compiled in 2011 from greenspace data provided by the 32 Scottish local authorities.
The dataset categorises greenspace into 23 different open space types (for example, public parks, private gardens, play areas, semi-natural, community gardens and allotments). These types are based on the Planning and Advice Note (PAN) 65 Planning and Open Space. Sometimes one area has more than one type of greenspace. For example, the main (primary) use of the area may be a public park, but within this, an area is used as a play area (secondary use). The primary use is shown as a block of colour and the secondary use is shown as an area of hatching.
Detailed map at 1:10,000 showing primary use (solid colours) with secondary use displayed on top using hatching.
The dataset is supplied in ShapeFile format with documentation and layer files to style the data in QGIS and ESRI’s ArcGIS. Layer files are provided for display at the following scales:
National (approx 1:2,500,000) – uses a solid colour to denote the presence of greenspace within a Local Authority.
1:50,000 – displayed using the broad 9 PAN65 typologies.
1:25,000 – displayed using the 23 greenspace primary land use categories.
1:15,000 – primary land use displayed as per 1:25,000 with a single category to show where a secondary use exists.
1:5,000 – primary land use displayed as per 1:25,000 with secondary use split up in to six categories.
Please note: Scotland’s Greenspace Map is produced by www.greenspacescotland.org.uk and not Ordnance Survey. However the dataset was created using OS MasterMap® Topography
Layer so it is subject to the same licence conditions as the other licensed Ordnance Survey datasets.
A number of datasets have recently been updated in Ordnance Survey Roam, the Digimap online mapping application, bringing them up to date with the most recent versions available from Ordnance Survey. All datasets are available to view using the Roam application in the Ordnance Survey collection.
The table below lists all the datasets that have been updated and includes the OS release date:
We are pleased to announce that the 2007 Land Cover Map of Great Britain, created by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), is now available in vector format in the Digimap Environment Download service. The new dataset makes it easier for users to perform spatial analysis, such as proximity analysis and land use studies.
The data is available in ESRI Shapefile format, which can be read by most modern Geographic Information Systems, and is supplied on 100km x 100km tiles. Accompanying the data are ESRI Layer files which can be used to display the data using 23 classes based on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Broad Habitats in ESRI software.
The addition of the vector version brings the availability of the 2007 Land Cover Map in line with the 2000 Land Cover Map. A full list of formats available for the 2007 data is included below:
Vector, ESRI shapefile format
25m raster, TIFF format
1km raster , TIFF format
Further information about the Land Cover Map 2007 can be found on the CEH website.
If you have any questions about the dataset or any other part of the service then please get in touch:
We are pleased to announce the release of DWG versions of both OS Terrain™ 5 (vector) and OS MasterMap® Topography Layer Building Height Attribute, which makes their use in CAD applications much easier and quicker.
Recently we have been working to produce DWG versions of the detailed vector dataset OS Terrain™ 5 and the popular Building Height Attribute component of OS MasterMap® Topography Layer. Both these datasets have proved popular with CAD users for detailed modelling applications but until now using them has proved time-consuming as many steps were required to convert them in to a format suitable for use in CAD applications.
OS Terrain 5 Vector
OS Terrain 5 Vector is dataset consisting of contour lines with five metre vertical spacing and spot heights (point features). The dataset also includes contours for mean high and low water around coastal areas, along with labels for both spot heights and contours. OS Terrain 5 is the most detailed height dataset available from Ordnance Survey. A Digital Terrain Model (DTM) version is also available in ASCII grid format and can be downloaded through Digimap.
Building Height Attribute (BHA)
As with the other BHA datasets provided through Digimap the DWG version is supplied as a dataset of building polygons together with the building height attributes supplied by OS in the latest alpha release of their Building Height Attribute dataset (December 2014 at the time of writing). The DWG dataset is a 3D dataset which uses two of the height attributes supplied by OS to create the 3D features. The base height of buildings is set using the value of the AbsHMin attribute and the roof height is defined by the AbsH2 attribute:
All height attributes supplied by OS, as indicated in the image above, are included as XDATA which can be readily viewed in CAD applications.
Note: the DWG BHA dataset is not supplied with a terrain surface so the building features will appear to float above the surface if it is displayed without a suitable terrain surface. We recommend using either OS Terrain 5 or OS Terrain 50, both of which can be downloaded from Digimap.
The image below shows OS Terrain 5 vector overlaid with BHA in AutoCAD 2015 for the area around Edinburgh Castle. Both datasets were supplied by Digimap in DWG format and required no manipulation or processing in order to display them.
OS Terrain 5 vector and OS MasterMap BHA datasets are supplied on a 5x5km grid, so you may receive multiple multiple files if your area covers more than one 5km grid square.
We hope this makes it much easier to use the data and we welcome any feedback you may have.
EDINA has updated Geology Roam with a whole range of new data, allowing users access to nearly all the data available from Geology Download without needing to put it into GIS software. We have also updated the Active legend, so you can now order it by the Age of the Rocks on the map.
New Data
As you can see in the image above the most zoomed out levels now have the Offshore Geology data (DigRock250 and DigSBS250) allowing you to see the rocks and sea bed sediments around the coast of the United kingdom. We have also added in the most detailed onshore geological mapping from the British Geological Survey, the 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 scale maps (DiGMapGB-10 and DiGMapGB25). Please note that these datasets do not have national coverage, where they are not present there is a water mark on the map to inform you. As there is almost no overlap between these two large scale datasets EDINA has combined them into a single detailed geology layer.
Basemaps
To allow different datasets to be viewed at the same scale we have introduced the basemaps tab so that the geology data can be switched with the scale remaining the same. Adding the basemaps tab has also allowed us to introduce new ways of viewing the same data, with all the geology layers now viewable as both the Rock Unit e.g. Kimmeridge Clay Formation and Rock Type e.g. Mudstone.
The basemaps tab has allowed many datasets to be view at the same scale so in addition to the new geological data we have also added several extra types of data which provide information about the soil and hydrogeology of Great Britain. The Geological Indicators of Flooding; Permeability (Max and Min); 1:625,000 Scale Hydrogeology; along with Soil Strength, Texture and Calcium Carbonate content from the Soil Parent Material Data are now all available as basemaps.
Active Legend
Click image to enlarge…
The final change made to the Geology Roam interface has been to the Active Legends which now allow you to order the entries by their age. The ordering is based on the MAX_INDEX attribute in the geology data that allows you to order the Rock Units based on its oldest age.
The active legend still lets you rocks on the map by clicking on the legend and vice versa.
A full list of the products available in each view / scale can be found in the Geology Roam “How To Guide” here:
A number of datasets have been updated recently bringing them up to date with the most recent versions available from Ordnance Survey. All datasets are available to download using the Digimap Data Download application in the Ordnance Survey collection.
The table below lists all the datasets that have been updated and includes the OS release date:
Of particular note at this time is that Ordnance Survey have announced the withdrawal of the 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer and OS Locator products following the release of OS Open Names in March 2015.
The last product update for 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer will be June 2016.
The last product update for OS Locator will be May 2016
Following these releases Ordnance Survey will no longer supply, maintain or support the use of either OS Locator or 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer.
If you have any questions about the dataset updates or Digimap please contact us:
For this year’s GeoForum we were lucky enough to be in the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich, now home to the University of Greenwich. Around 60 delegates enjoyed a programme of talks and presentations aimed at keeping them up-to-date with the maps and mapping technology available to higher education.
The day began with Professor David Maguire, Jisc Chair, Vice principle of the University of Greenwich, former chief scientist at Esri and an acknowledged expert in computer mapping, outlining his vision of the future of both Jisc and Geographic information science. There was emphasis in his talk about the need to incorporate the Cloud in both Jisc’s services and into the Geographic Data and software services.
The first full presentation of the day came from Christopher Wesson, one of the founding members of Ordnance Survey’s digital Cartographic Design team.
Christopher gave some background about Ordnance Survey and the data they are now creating. He then took us through eight key principles that used to create successful cartographic designs: User Requirements, Display Format, Visual Hierarchy, Simplicity, Legibility, Consistency, Accessibility and Good Composition.
Building a 3D Model
The Next presentation came from Jason Taylor, a technical tutor at Ravensbourne responsible for the production of physical models and prototypes. Jason took everyone through the step by step process of taking terrain data along with building foot prints and heights to create scale models of cityscapes.
The result of his work combined milling of MDF particle board and also 3D Printing of a miniature Millennium Dome. Nearly all of the data used in the production of the model came from Digimap (the details of the Dome’s shape came from a different source), and Jason highlighted the help pages as a great resource for helping him and his students begin to create their models.
The Ordnance Survey Licence
Emma Diffley, EDINA Geoservices Support team leader, then took the audience through the major changes made to the Digimap Licence for Ordnance Survey data.
This important presentation highlighted the main differences between this agreement and the one it replaced, showing that it is more permissive than before, and that there is now an End User Licence Agreement (EULA) which places emphasis on the individuals to ensure they are abiding by the terms and conditions.
Lunch
During the Lunch break we had presentations from Esri‘s Addy Pope about the ArcGIS Online service; from the CadCorp team who highlighted their free GIS data viewer, MapExpress, and their discounts for educational use; and finally from the British Geological Survey who highlighted their subsurface data and Groundhog website.
Digimap Update
After lunch the delegates were split into two groups with half doing the excursion while the other half was updated on the latest work going on with Digimap and the other Geoservices run by EDINA.
Guy McGarva, EDINA Geoservices Support, gave the Digimap Update presentation highlighting the past year’s achievements and the plans for the coming year. Much of the coming improvements are to do with improving access to the service for mobile devices and also to the data for CAD users. There are also a lot of new products and cartographic improvements to old products going into the Roam online mapping interfaces.
Guy also highlighted some future trends including better integration between services and a shift to delivering more training through interactive webinars rather than face-to-face training.
Fieldtrip GB
During the Fieldtrip GB excursion Ian Holmes, EDINA Geoservices Support, took the delegates through the process of designing a data collection form, deploying it to the groups mobile phones, collecting data points from around the Greenwich campus and then uploading the data and viewing it on a map. The entire process was carried out live for each group with the minimum of fuss, highlighting the mobile app’s usefulness for carrying out citizen science or group fieldwork.
We also found out about a few of the enhancements coming to the app, including:
more stable data management
the ability to longer and more complicated multi-page data entry forms
an entirely new version with OpenStreetMap data for use worldwide
the ability to upload your own maps or way-points to highlight where to collect data
Final Summary
We’d like to thank all the speakers and delegates at this years conference for taking part in a very successful event.
All the presentations throughout the day highlighted the changes in the world of digital mapping occurring right now. We hope that the changes highlighted in the Digimap Update presentation along with the rest of the planned at EDINA will mean the Digimap will continue to be relevant for it users and help them prepare for future work with maps and digital data.
Finally we’d also like to thank the University of Greenwich for providing a first class venue and event coordination team to ensure it was a memorable day.
The latest version of Ordnance Survey’s Boundary-Line data contains two new layers, Ceremonial Counties and Historical Counties.
Ceremonial Counties
This new layer in the Boundary-Line data represents the areas of England, Scotland and Wales that are represented by a Lord Lieutenant. The Lord Lieutenant is the chief officer of the county and representative of the Crown; whenever the Queen visits an area she will be accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant.
This layer is very useful for those who want to make a map of Great Britain divided into its counties without all the complexities of Unitary Authorities, Districts and Boroughs. This is the layer to choose when making a map showing a more traditional view of Great Britain without making a historical view.
Historical Counties
The historic counties dataset shows the county boundaries in place in 1888 in England and Wales and 1899 in Scotland. The boundaries for England and Wales were derived from mapping from the National Archives dating from 1890. The Scottish boundaries are derived from maps as late as 1940.
This layer is very useful for those studying this time period and when combined with the ceremonial counties and modern the most up to date boundaries gives a good picture of how fluid the boundaries are over time.
Selecting Layers in Data Download
If you have the Boundary-Line data you need already but would like to add the new layers without downloading it all again then follow this useful tip. Once you have added the product to your basket click on the arrow in the layers column to pick and choose those that you want to take. See the image below:
You will then just receive these new layers and not all the others which you may already have or not need.
Please let us know if you have any questions about this or any other aspect of the service:
We’d like to thank all the speakers and delegates at this years conference for taking part in a very successful event.
