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
As part of our continuous work to improve Digimap and make it more user friendly, we recently added a new Contact Us system. The new system is available in all Digimap Collections and guides you to useful help resources based on what it is you want to know:
Contact Us – stage 1
If you are not able to find the answer to your question using the resources then you are asked to complete a short form outlining the problem you are experiencing:
Contact Us – stage 2
If you are logged in to Digimap you have the option to submit the completed form to either the local Digimap support team at your institution or to the Digimap Helpdesk at EDINA. All queries submitted by users who are not logged in to the service are automatically routed to the EDINA Digimap Helpdesk. The details are sent by email, and copied to you so that you have a full record of what was asked. The new system has been available since the beginning of May and is available from the all Contact Us links in the Roam and Data Download clients, as well as the Contact Us link on the footer of the Digimap home page:
Contact Us Link in Data DownloadContact Us Link in Roam
We hope you like using this improved feature, but if you have any questions or comments regarding this or anything else to do with Digimap, please get in touch using the email address below, or try out the new Contact Us form in Digimap!
Canworthy Solar Farm, which became operational in 2014 and covers approximately 55 hectares (~67 football fields)
Aerial Digimap updates
March/April 2017 has been a busy couple of months for the Data Team who have been working hard to process a huge area of updated aerial imagery data from the data supplier, Getmapping. The update consists of around 80,000 individual 1km tiles, all captured in 2015, which is approximately 30% of the country.
Prior to the update just over 50% of the data was from 2013 or later; after the update 77% of the data is from 2013 or later.
This means that more up to date imagery is now available for viewing and download through Aerial Digimap for a significant proportion of the country.
The map below shows the approximate distribution of the updated data.
Click on map to view larger version
This is the first update we have received from Getmapping, but we are expecting another update later this year containing imagery captured in 2016.
Cruise liner in the Firth of Forth
We will add this to the service as quickly as we can to ensure that the most up to date data is always available to Aerial Digimap users. In order to make it clear where the data has been updated, we will add an Availability/Reference Grid to Aerial Download so that users can easily identify if the imagery has been updated in their study area(s). This grid will be added to the system in the next couple of weeks.
We are still investigating the best way to make previous versions of the data available, but in the mean time only the most recent data is available through Aerial Roam and Aerial Download.
Webinar resources
We recently ran a webinar highlighting the data and showcasing a number of potential uses for the imagery. The webinar was recorded in full and is available on our YouTube channel. The slides used during the webinar and a transcript of all questions and answers are available on our help page.
3D model using Aerial Imagery, OS Terrain 5 DTM and MasterMap Building Height Attribute
Data information
The aerial imagery data in the service is 25cm resolution vertical aerial orthophotography supplied by Getmapping PLC, and is the most detailed aerial imagery available for the whole of Great Britain. As well as being a really interesting dataset the imagery also has a number of practical uses across a wide range of disciplines from urban planning and 3D modelling to land use and archaeological studies.
Subscribing
To see if your institution already subscribes to Aerial Digimap, please see our subscribing institutions help page. Information on how to subscribe to the new service is available on the Aerial Digimap Subscription page.
If you have any questions about the service please consult the dedicated Aerial Digimap help pages or contact the Digimap support team using the details below.
Dataset updates in Ordnance Survey Digimap
OS Data Download:
Product Name
OS Publication Date
Code-Point
February 2017
1:25,000 Colour Raster
March 2017
1:50,000 Colour Raster
March 2017
Points of Interest
March 2017
OS Roam:
Product Name
OS Publication Date
1:25,000 Colour Raster
March 2017
The OS data update page is kept up to date with all dataset updates in the collections.
If you have any questions about the dataset updates or Digimap please contact us:
Digimap will be making use of an extended “at risk” period on Tuesday 16th May 2017 and will be UNAVAILABLE between 08.30 and 12.00 hours.
We will endeavour to restore full service as quickly as possible. However, during this period it will not be possible to log in to Digimap or to retrieve requested data. Any data orders submitted which have not completed prior to the outage will be continue to process once the service has been restored.
In March 2017 Ordnance Survey withdrew the Meridian 2 dataset from their portfolio. It remains available within Digimap, but has moved within the Data Download application from Vector Data to the Withdrawn Datasets category.
Both national and tiled coverages are still available here. Documentation about this dataset can also be found in the help pages: Meridian 2 Data
The Digimap team are hosting a free webinar, on Wednesday 26 April 2017, from 1-1:30pm.
3D model showing bedrock geology of the Cuillin hills in Skye with Aerial Imagery draped over OS Terrain 5 DTM.
The session will give an overview of how to create 3D models in common GIS and CAD packages (ArcGIS Pro, QGIS and AutoCAD) using data downloaded from Digimap.
The session will look at the datasets available from Digimap that are of use for 3D modelling.
You will also have the opportunity to ask questions on any aspect of Digimap.
Registration is required – please note that spaces are limited, so it’s advisable to register early.
Aerial Digimap was only launched at the end of last year but the response from the Digimap Community has been amazing. The service already has thousands of active users who have created hundreds of thousands of screen maps. Users have downloaded tens of thousands of square kilometres of this data, for use directly in reports or GIS and CAD software.
Data updates
Whilst we’re excited to see such a high level of usage of the new service, behind the scenes our Data Team are currently processing the 2015 data which will be available in the service early next month. This is the first update we have received from the data supplier, Getmapping, and contains updates to around 80,000 tiles. This is a significant update as it covers roughly 30% of the country providing more up to date imagery for a large proportion of Great Britain. The map below shows the likely distribution of the updated 2015 data.
Click on map to view larger version
Webinar resources
We recently ran a webinar highlighting the data and showcasing a number of potential uses for the imagery. The webinar was recorded in full and is available on our YouTube channel. The slides used during the webinar and a transcript of all questions and answers are available on our help page.
3D model using Aerial Imagery, OS Terrain 5 DTM and MasterMap Building Height Attribute
Data information
The aerial imagery data in the service is 25cm resolution vertical aerial imagery supplied by Getmapping PLC, and is the most detailed aerial imagery available for the whole of Great Britain. As well as being a really interesting dataset the imagery also has a number of practical uses across a wide range of disciplines from urban planning and 3D modelling to land use and archaeological studies.
Subscribing
To see if your institution already subscribes to Aerial Digimap, please see our subscribing institutions help page. Information on how to subscribe to the new service is available on the Aerial Digimap Subscription page.
If you have any questions about the service please consult the dedicated Aerial Digimap help pages or contact the Digimap support team using the details below.
We have updated a number of key datasets in Jan/Feb 2017 in the Ordnance Survey collection of Digimap. These updates bring the datasets available from Digimap inline with the latest versions published by Ordnance Survey. Of particular note are the updates to the two most detailed mapping products available from Ordnance Survey: OS MasterMap Topography Layer and OS VectorMap Local.
OS VectorMap Local showing WestminsterOS MasterMap Topography Layer showing Westminster
OS Data Download:
Product Name
OS Publication Date
Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer
December 2016
OS MasterMap Topography Layer
December 2016
OS MasterMap Water Network Layer
January 2017
OS VectorMap Local
January 2017
OS VectorMap Local Raster
January 2017
MiniScale
January 2017
OS Terrain 5 Contours
January 2017
OS Terrain 5 DTM
January 2017
OS Open Names
January 2017
Code-Point with polygons
January 2017
Code-Point Open
February 2017
OS Roam:
Product Name
OS Publication Date
OS MasterMap Topography Layer
December 2016
OS VectorMap Local
Jan 2017
OS VectorMap Local Raster
Jan 2017
MiniScale
January 2017
The OS data update page is kept up to date with all dataset updates in the collections.
If you have any questions about the dataset updates or Digimap please contact us:
This free webinar will briefly cover recent changes to Digimap Collections and offer a summary of copyright issues.
An ideal way for Digimap site reps, or any staff who support Digimap users, to get information on key aspects of Digimap activity.
You will also have the opportunity to ask questions on any aspect of Digimap. Emma and Ian, from EDINA’s Geosupport team, will host the session. Hope you can make it!
EDINA will be running a free webinar about Aerial Digimap on Wednesday 25th January at 13:00 – 13:30pm.
Please join us to learn more about Aerial Digimap and the benefits the data can bring to research, teaching and education. The webinar is free, but you will need to register (see link below). Places on the webinar are limited with only 100 available, so book now to secure your place.
In the webinar you will hear about the new Digimap Aerial Collection launched in October 2016. We will give you a guided tour of the new Aerial Roam application explaining the data and functionality available.
You can read more about the Aerial Digimap service in this previous blog post:
