Category: Digimap News

Northern Ireland map data: JISC Consultation

ecls/ / Consultations, Digimap News, Of Interest

JISC Collections has an opportunity to add Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland (OSNI) data to the Digimap Collections. Before a final decision is made to pursue this agreement JISC Collections would like to guage interest in these mapping data from existing subscribers. JISC Collections would welcome feedback on whether or not your institution would participate in an agreement to supply OSNI data through Digimap Collections.

It has been proposed that the following data be included in the licensing arrangement. The suggested formats are also given for each dataset:

  • OSNI Largescale Vector (ntf, dxf, dwg)
  • OSNI 1:50,000 Vector (shapefile, mapinfo tab)
  • OSNI RegionalMap (pgdb, shapefile)
  • OSNI GlobalMap (pgdb, shapefile)
  • OSNI Road Network (shapefile, mapinfo tab)
  • OSNI Boundary Map (pgdb, shapefile)
  • OSNI Pointer Product (format: csv) (Pointer includes Royal Mail Group PAF postcodes)
  • OSNI Place Name Gazetteer Product- OSNI 1:10,000 Raster Product (format: tiff, ecw)
  • OSNI Raster Activity Map Products (format: tiff, ecw)
  • OSNI 1:50,000 Raster Product (format: tiff, ecw)
  • OSNI 1:250,000 Raster Product (format: tiff)
  • OSNI Parliamentary Constituency Raster Map Products (format: jpeg)
  • OSNI Raster Street Map Products (format: tiff, ecw)
  • OSNI Historical Archive Product (format: ecw)
  • OSNI DTM 50m, standard, enhanced Products (format: txt, dbf, dgn)
  • OSNI Orthophotography Product (format: ecw)

More information about the data can be found on the OSNI website: http://www.osni.gov.uk/

The suggested prices for an institutional subscription to this agreement vary according to JISC’s institutional banding, and are as follows:

Higher Education

  • Bands A-B – £750 per annum
  • Bands C-D – £600 per annum
  • Bands E-F – £400 per annum
  • Bands G-J – £100 per annum

Further Education

  • All bands – £75 per institution

If you would find it useful to have access to Northern Ireland data, please contact your Digimap site representative to express an interest in a subscription. If you don’t know who your site representative is, please check the list on our website: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/list.shtml

If you are a Digimap Site Representative, please gather feedback you receive from Digimap users at your institution and contact Liam Earney (L.Earney@jisc.ac.uk) if you would like to express an interest in a subscription for your institution.

ShareGeo Launched

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features

A new geospatial data sharing facility has been released today which enables Digmap users to find and share geospatial datasets.

ShareGeo forms part of the EDINA Digimap suite of services and is accessible from the Digimap Collections main page in the ‘Find and Share’ section. It is free for all Digimap users to use.


Use ShareGeo to contribute your own (derived or user-generated) geospatial datasets, or to download datasets which are already there for your research, teaching or personal use.

Have you created a geospatial dataset for your dissertation? Do you use them in your teaching? Do you think they would be interesting/useful to others? If so, contribute them to ShareGeo and they will be accessible for download by other Digimap users*.

Geospatial datasets in a number of formats (raster, vector and tabular) can be contributed for anywhere in the world. A minimal amount of metadata is required for each dataset. Access ShareGeo by logging in to Digimap (http://edina.ac.uk/digimap) and then either follow the link on the Collections page to ShareGeo or click on the following link: http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/sharegeo/

Help and further information is available at: http://edina.ac.uk/projects/sharegeo/Help/help.shtml We would welcome comments and feedback sent to us at edina@ed.ac.uk Alternatively you can use the form within ShareGeo at: http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/sharegeo/feedback

*Licensing restrictions may apply to some datasets. If, for example, a dataset is derived from Ordnance Survey data, only Digimap users registered for Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection will be able to access it. Specific licence restrictions may apply to individual datasets and these must be adhered to.

NEW! Geospatial data sharing service

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features

EDINA have implemented a new geospatial data sharing facility called ShareGeo. It forms part of the Digimap Collections suite of services.


It is intended that ShareGeo will be accessible to all Digimap users at the beginning of February, however we are providing early access to it for readers of the Digimap blog (details of how to access it are below).

Please feel free to browse and download any datasets that are already there. If you have any geospatial datasets, we would ask you to contribute these to ShareGeo. ShareGeo is free to use for all registered Digimap users.

ShareGeo can be accessed after logging in to Digimap, using the following liks.

  • First login to Digimap at: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap You will see a greyed out link to ShareGeo.
  • The visible link is not active, so you will need to go to ShareGeo by entering the following link in your browser: http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/sharegeo/ (Note: Once the facility is accessible to all, there will be a link on the Digimap Collections page to take you directly to ShareGeo)

Help and further information is available at: http://edina.ac.uk/projects/sharegeo/Help/help.shtml We would welcome comments and feedback sent to us at edina@ed.ac.uk Alternatively you can use the form within ShareGeo at: http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/sharegeo/feedback

If you need help or advice regading ShareGeo please do not hesitate to contact us.

Usage Figures for Site Representatives

ecls/ / Digimap News

Site Representatives for Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection may have noticed that the usage statistics for October 2008 are not yet available via the Site Representative’s Support Area.

We are in the process of re-engineering the way we calculate and present usage statistics. Since this process is not yet complete, figures for October 2008 onwards are not yet available. The facility for extracting usage statistics remains available so that site representatives can continue to download figures for previous months.

We hope to have complete usage statistics available in time for the new year. We intend this to include data for all the Digimap Collections. Currently, data is available only for the Ordnance Survey Collection. Please note that information available for some Collections will be more limited than for others, particularly Historic Digimap.

Progress updates will be posted here when available.

Confused?
If you are registered with EDINA as a Digimap Site Representative, you will have access to a specific section of Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection called the Site Representative’s Support Area. This will provide you with your institution’s usage data for Digimap. It is only available to site representatives.

GML data translation from Dotted Eyes

ecls/ / Digimap News, Help

Dotted Eyes, a well established digital mapping solution provider, has produced an edition of their InterpOSe GML translator specifically for EDINA Digimap users.

The Digimap Edition of InterpOSe will translate OS MasterMap GML data from Digimap’s MasterMap Download facility and convert it to various file formats, including Shape, TAB, mid/mif and DWG/DXF. InterpOSe deals with both Topography and ITN layers, and is tailored specifically for data from Digimap.

InterpOSe (the Digimap Edition) is free for Digimap users upon registration with Dotted Eyes. Please visit their website for more information and to download a copy of InterpOSe:

http://www.dottedeyes.co.uk/spatial_data_loading/interpose/digimap.php

Britain from Above – Land Use Maps

ecls/ / Digimap News

You may have seen a recent episode of Andrew Marr’s BBC programme Britain from Above which featured the Land Utilisation maps created by Dudley Stamp in the 1930s. You can watch the relevant section again on the BBC website here.

Land Use Viewer
Land Use Viewer interface

These maps are available through Historic Digimap under the Land Use Viewer. You need to have a subscription to Historic Digimap in order to gain access, but there is no individual user registration.

Dudley Stamp's land use map
Sample of Dudley Stamp's land use maps

Withdrawal of Land-Line

ecls/ / Data Changes & Additions, Digimap News

Digimap will cease to deliver Land-Line.Plus data at the end of August 2008.

As a registered Digimap user you may continue to hold and use any Land-Line.Plus data you already have until 31 July 2009. Beyond this date, you will be required to delete any Land-Line.Plus data you hold, and will not be licensed to use it thereafter.

Land-Line map of urban area

Land-Line.Plus has been replaced by OS MasterMap Topography Layer. These data are available from Digimap’s MasterMap Download facility, within the Ordnance Survey Collection. The OS MasterMap Topography Layer is as detailed as Land-Line.Plus but contains a much richer attribute set. It is also available in GML format, rather than NTF.

Corresponding OS MasterMap Topography Layer map of urban area

More information about OS MasterMap can be found within the Digimap Help pages.

Historic Digimap: licence and consultation

ecls/ / Access, Consultations, Digimap News

Reminder of new licence agreement
A new, three-year sub-licence is now available for Historic Digimap, the service offering historic Ordnance Survey maps and data from the Landmark Information Group. Current subscribing institutions will be contacted directly to ensure continued access from 1 August 2008 onwards. The new licence will run from 1 August 2008 until 31 July 2011. Full details, including subscription forms and costs, can be found on the JISC Collections website at: http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/catalogue/coll_digimap_historic.aspx

Trials
In addition, 30-day trials are offered to those from institutions wishing to assess the service prior to subscription. Please contact the EDINA Helpdesk on edina@ed.ac.uk to request such a trial. You can read more about Historic Digimap on the EDINA website at: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/description/historic_overview.shtml

Consultation on additional datasets
JISC Collections are currently running a consultation for the purchase of additional datasets for Historic Digimap. Among the suggested purchases are the GOAD Fire Insurance plans and historical town plans.

Representatives from existing institutions and others interested in the Collection are invited to complete the short survey at their earliest convenience. This can be done online, and should take only a few minutes to complete:

http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/consultations/new_agreements/historicdigi_cons

Click the link to the “online response form” in the Introduction.

OS MasterMap replaces Land-Line

ecls/ / Data Changes & Additions, Digimap News, Help

Land-Line data is being withdrawn in August 2008.

After 1 August 2008 you will need to use OS MasterMap Topography layer instead of Land-Line data. Land-Line is the most detailed data available through the Data Download facility within Digimap’s OS Collection. It has been replaced by OS MasterMap Topography layer, which is equally detailed and available through the MasterMap Download facility.

Two OS MasterMap Layers, Topography and Integrated Transport Network, have been available from Digimap’s OS Collection since September 2007. These layers are available through the MasterMap Download facility. You can read more about OS MasterMap data on our OS MasterMap website and within the Digimap Help pages. Look in the sections under MasterMap Download and Data Information.

There are several software packages available which make the process of loading and viewing the OS MasterMap in GIS applications quite simple, more simple than using Land-Line data, in fact. These are in addition to ‘built-in’ converters supplied with the most recent versions of ArcGIS (Productivity Suite), MapInfo and AutoCAD software.

Viewing data
If you wish to simply view the OS MasterMap data (rather than undertake any spatial analysis, querying or manipulation), there is a simple viewer produced by Snowflake Software. It is called the OS MasterMap Viewer and can be downloaded for free (upon registration) from the Snowflake website.

MapInfo

The following applications are free and will load OS MasterMap, fully represented, into MapInfo:

  • OSM2MIF written by Nigel James at the Bodleian Library. This can be downloaded from the Bodleian Library Map Room website: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/maps/translat.htm
  • InterpOSe (Digimap Edition) from Dotted Eyes. This is available free of charge on registration with Dotted Eyes. It includes full OS MasterMap styling, and will convert data to various file formats, including Shape, TAB, mid/mif and DWG/DXF.

ArcGIS

The following applications are freely available:

  • Productivity Suite 1.1. This is freely available to those licensed to use ArcGIS through Eduserv Chest. It contains MapManager and will convert OS MasterMap to Geodatabase format and comes complete with a number of layer files for representation (details can be found in the local installation folder of Productivity Suite). You will need a special Athens username and password to access the software download area. This should be available from your local Chest Representative or ESRI Technical Contact.
  • InterpOSe (Digimap Edition) from Dotted Eyes. This is available free of charge on registration with Dotted Eyes. It includes full OS MasterMap styling, and will convert data to various file formats, including Shape, TAB, mid/mif and DWG/DXF.

AutoCAD

  • InterpOSe (Digimap Edition) from Dotted Eyes. This will convert OS MasterMap to DXF and DWG and has a template file (.DWT) for representing the data using OS style. InterpOSe can be downloaded for free from Dotted Eyes website on registration there.

There are other packages and resources available which are detailed on our OS MasterMap website. Ordnance Survey also provide information about software which will read OS MasterMap data.

Instructions on using MapManager 9.1 and InterpOSe are included in the Digimap Help pages. Look in the section labelled “Using Data with GIS”. If you have any questions about the information provided here, please contact the EDINA Helpdesk on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302.

Historic Digimap: Licence Renewal

ecls/ / Access, Digimap News

If your institution subscribes to Historic Digimap, you should note that the current licence ends on 31 July 2008 and the new licence begins on 1 August 2008. Subscription costs for the next licence period are now available from JISC Collections website.

All subscription forms should be completed and sent to the JISC Collections Helpdesk. Details of the subscription process can be found on the JISC Collections “how to subscribe” page.

Please do not send subscription forms to EDINA.

Note also that from 1 August 2008 access to Historic Digimap will be via the UK Federation and OpenAthens.