Category: Of Interest

Licensing: publishing maps on websites

ecls/ / Digimap News, Of Interest

We are often asked whether Ordnance Survey maps from Digimap can be published on the web and whether the Digimap licence allows this.  The simple answer is yes, but there are (as always) caveats.  The most obvious one is that any maps from Digimap that you publish on a website must relate to your academic work.  That applies to the use of Digimap, regardless of what you do with the maps or the service.

The section of the Ordnance Survey Licence you need to look at is Schedule 2 of the Second Variation Agreement.  This was originally called Appendix 4 under the original 2007 – 2009 licence, but has since been superseded by the first and second variations.  You can find all the licence documents online here:

http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/os/osdigimaphelp.htm#copyright/licence_agreement.htm

Static Images

If you wish to publish a static image on your public-facing, “open to the world” website, you may do so on condition that the image is no bigger than 1 048 576 pixels.  This is the equivalent of a square 1024 x 1024 pixels.

If you wish to publish a static image on an intranet page, that is, a website with access restricted to members of your institution, there are no restrictions on the size of the image you can use.

You can publish as many images as you wish, as long as each one is less than 1 048 657 pixels (1024 x 1024 or equivalent).

Interactive Mapping

A more common and complex question is whether you can put up a “zoomable” map with your own data overlaid on it.  If this is what you wish to do, you need to consider the following stipulations in the licence:

When rendering mapping on a website:

  • Only Digital Maps may be published. Digital Data and mapping in GeoPDF format may not be published at any time.
  • It must only be available as an image and not be accompanied by drawing or measuring tools.
  • It is permissible to zoom in and out to enlarge or reduce the viewing scale of a discrete map image but not to change from one dataset to another of higher/lower resolution.
  • It is permissible to pan to the edge of a discrete map image (where the ‘viewing frame’ is smaller than the overall image).
  • Digital Maps may be displayed at any size on screen.
  • More than one Digital Map may be included but no single Digital Map may be of a size greater than specified above.

Note that “Digital Maps” is a capitalised term and is specifically defined in the licence agreement. The definition given is: “any or all of the maps created by a Datacentre from the Licensed Work to be used in a Service provided by a Datacentre.”  In essence this means any map created by Digimap which is “non intelligent”.  That is, it contains no vector data, cannot be interrogated to extract data of any sort (in the same way as one might interrogate a satellite image to identify the spectral signature of a particular pixel), and is a dumb image.

Given these stipulations, you are not permitted to use the Ordnance Survey licensed data available through Digimap to display a series of maps using different OS data products which the public can zoom in and out of, pan around the whole country and add their own markers to, in a similar way to many other online mapping services (such as Google Maps or Apple Maps or OpenStreetmap).  Note that this does not apply if you wish to use the OS OpenData, which is also available through Digimap.

Alternative Sources of Mapping

If you do wish to create an interactive mapping function on your website, you might like to consider the alternatives to using licensed Ordnance Survey data.  EDINA operates a free service called OpenStream which provides OS OpenData through an API. You need an academic email address to register for OpenStream (ending .ac.uk) , but it doesn’t cost.  The maps area available under the OS OpenData licence and the licensing terms are therefore much more flexible than the data licensed through Digimap.

As ever, if you have any questions about what you can and cannot do under the Digimap licence, please do not hesitate to contact EDINA with details of what you wish to do, what data you wish to use and who you intend should benefit from your work.  We are keen to hear of licensing questions you would like to see explained further on this blog.

Environment Digimap Launched: Free till July 2014

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

Environment Digimap Home PageEDINA and Jisc are pleased to announce the launch of a new Digimap Collection, Environment Digimap.

This new collection offers land cover map data from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH). Environment Digimap is a subscription service; however, it will be available free of charge until 31 July 2014. After this period a subscription fee will apply per institution.

Environment Digimap offers two facilities: mapping through Environment Roam, and the ability to download data through Environment Download. The data available, CEH’s Land Cover Map products, provide a snapshot of land cover for each of the years 1990, 2000 and 2007. There are raster datasets available at 25m and 1km resolutions for each year and a vector version of the 2000 dataset. The data are in a range of formats depending on the year. More details are available in the Environment Digimap Help Pages: CEH Products Available

Environment Roam

How to get access…

To use this service for free your institution needs to subscribe, this is free till the end of the 2013 – 14 academic year and can be arranged via the Jisc Collections website:

Jisc Collections: Environment Digimap

If your institution doesn’t subscribe the Environment Digimap button on the home page will be grey. Contact your Digimap site rep and they will be able to help arrange your institutions subscription: List of Digimap Site Reps

If you have any questions about Environment Digimap, please contact us:

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

 

 

Map updates in Digimap Roam

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

We have updated three of the mapping datasets in Digimap Roam, so you can now view mapping published as recently as June 2013.

MasterMap in May 2013MasterMap in October 2013

The products updated are:

  • OS MasterMap: used in the three most detailed zoom levels in Roam.
  • OS VectorMap Local (VML): the next most detailed maps in Roam, available as alternate “Basemaps” in the 4th and 5th most detailed zoom levels.
  • Midscale Maps: These maps are made of the Meridian 2 mapping data along with contours. Until now they had been made with Land-form PANORAMA data, but now they use the new OS Terrain 50 contours:

Digimap Roam District View

 

These midscale maps are also available in a backdrop colour scheme which can be accessed by using the Basemaps tab at the top right of the map. The faded colours allow your annotations to show more strongly:

Digimap Roam District View backdrop map with annotations

The updated datasets are also available from Digimap’s Data Download service (except MasterMap which will follow in the next few months), a page in Digimap Help details the all the OS products available and their currency in Roam and Data Download:

If you have any questions about the new data or any other issues relating to Digimap then please let us know:

  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk
  • Tel: 0131 65o 3302

Digimap Roam updates now in service

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest

The changes we previewed in the last blog post have now been put into service.

New Roam Interface in Development

We hope that you find the these changes an improvement and we would really appreciate any feedback you may have:

  • email: edina@ed.ac.uk
  • phone: 0131 650 3302

Read the previous blog posts about the updates to learn more about the changes we have made:

Digimap Carto: A last look before we turn off the lights

ecls/ / Digimap News, Of Interest, Service Availability

At 11:00 am access to Digimap Carto will be closed and by 12:00 noon it will have made its last map. Carto was at the cutting edge of web mapping technology for several years, delivering Ordnance Survey maps to thousands of users while Google was still just a search engine.  The high quality EPS and then PDF print files it produced meant that staff, students and researchers could print out maps of anywhere in Great Britain and were no longer limited to their library’s collection.

How Carto has changed since 1998
Carto over the years 1998 to 2013

As time passed Carto could easily keep up with the latest offerings from MultiMap (later bought by Microsoft and eventually becoming Bing Maps) and Google Maps. It had more advanced tools and much better data in the form of OS MasterMap, so as the Java updates got more frequent we all put up with the software being a bit unreliable for a few days before we could issue a fix. However after 2011 the number of Java updates ramped up significantly and the changes became more difficult to accommodate. Once anti-virus software began seeing Carto as a potential threat and preventing it operating we decided that maintenance was unsustainable.

EDINA realised that continuing to support Carto would be too costly in terms of developer time spent fixing problems rather than improving and enhancing the service. In the meantime the rest of the world had become much more accustomed to viewing maps online in a web browser; EDINA’s other mapping service, Roam was able to take on much of what Carto was offering without confusing or frustrating its users.

Some recent changes to the capabilities of the web mapping platform that Roam uses meant that we could finally offer a Carto replacement without the need for any software to run on the end user’s computer. These changes have allowed us to withdraw Carto and let Roam to take on all the mapping duties for Digimap. We can now get on with the business of all those improvements and enhancements we have been wanting to make. We hope you will like the changes that we are aiming to have in place this August:

Digimap Roam Interfaces: Important changes this summer

Farewell Carto!

Making Digimap data easier to use: OS VectorMap Local

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

As part of ongoing efforts to improve the usability of data delivered by Digimap, we have made some significant enhancements to one of the Ordnance Survey licensed datasets.

OS VectorMap® Local is a relatively new product from Ordnance Survey providing slightly less detail than OS MasterMap but still very useful for detailed backdrop mapping. Individual buildings are shown as well as roads, rivers, landcover and contours. The vector version of the data is provided by Ordnance Survey in GML 2.1.2. This is a standard geospatial data format developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium; however it generally needs to be converted into a proprietary format before being used in GIS and CAD software.

To make using this data easier we are now providing OS VectorMap Local in both Shapefile and DWG formats. Shapefiles can be easily opened in ArcGIS and most other GIS programs including OpenSource GIS software such as QGIS and gvSIG. DWG is the native format for AutoCAD and can be used in many other CAD systems as well.

This data is now available for download from the Data Download application in the Digimap Ordnance Survey Collection. VectorMap Local is in the Vector Data section; to change the format of the data you are downloading click on the Change link under Options once you have added it to the basket.

Digimap Data Download Basket
Click image to view full size.

Creating the data:

TO achieve the best results when recreating the data in different formats we had to use different software products for different formats. To convert the data to Shapefile we used the OpenSource Software GDAL program called “ogr2ogr” and for the DWG conversion we used FME from Safe Software. The image below shows part of the FME Workbench project used to convert the data to DWG.

Image showing FME Workbench converting GML to DWG
Click image to view full size.

1: Shapefiles

To convert the GML to Shapefile we created a lookup table between the Feature Codes in the GML data to Shapefile Layers.  As Ordnance Survey do not provide any guidance in their User Guide as to how to group features in VML , we analysed the data and experimented with various groupings, so that in the end we split the data into a possible 22 separate Layers. These layers may contain multiple feature classes but as they all have the original feature codes on them as attributes as well as all the other original attribution, further distinction between features can be achieved for representation and querying.

Example of the Shapefile data in ArcMap:

Image of VML in ArcMap
Click image to view full size.

A simple set of Layer Files has been created for use in ArcMap and can be downloaded from the VML Help page.

2. DWG

To convert the data to DWG we had to go through a similar process (as well as our data team becoming much more familiar with AutoCAD). We originally intended to produce DXF format data but this turned out to be a problem. We had to make some decisions about how to store attribution in the output data and one of the main considerations was the size of the resultant files. To begin with when we converted a tile of VML that was 60Mb of GML, it expanded in size to 240Mb when converted to DXF containing attributes as Inserts. This was unusable in systems we tried so we had to work on ways of making the files smaller. The first thing we did was change the format from DXF to DWG. As both formats are commonly read by various CAD systems this seems a reasonable thing to do although it may make the data slightly less interoperable. This changed the file size to 44Mb for our sample dataset. This was still quite large and some systems were having problems with this, especially when dealing with tiles in dense urban areas. We therefore decided to change the way we were storing attributes in the data. Instead of using Inserts we used Extended Entity Data (or XData) which was one of the options available in FME. This stores a fixed amount of information against an entity in the drawing. We use this to store the attribute information that was in the original GML data, including the original feature code. It’s a bit more difficult to work with this data but it can be viewed in AutoCAD  Map 3D by using the Express Tools –> Tools –> List Object Xdata or typing xdlist in the command prompt.

Using XData brought the size of our sample tile down to 10Mb and was usable in all the systems we tested it with. If you need access to the attributes either as Inserts or as Map 3D Object data please let us know.

As part of the conversion process we defined the representation for features in the DWG file, including point symbols and area fills. Features have also been grouped together into separate Layers as we did with the Shapefiles.

Example of the data in AutoCAD:

Image showing VML in DWG in AutoCAD
Click image to view full size.

Finally, after getting the project set up in FME and a thorough testing of the data, we ran the batch process to convert the data. This took nearly 3 days per format to convert the full load of our national coverage of VML data. This data will be updated on the normal update schedule, as we get updated VML from Ordnance Survey as Change Only Updates so future conversions will be much quicker.

Remember,both these datasets are available through Data Download by selecting VectorMap Local and then changing the format after you have added the data to your basket.

We intend to produce alternative formats for other products, including OS MasterMap, so we would very much like to hear your thoughts on the data that we have produced so far and let us know if this meets your needs.

 

 

 

Digimap 2012-13 Print Maps & Data worth nearly £40 Million

ecls/ / Digimap News, Of Interest
Money and Calculator
Picture courtesy of Images_Of_Money

As part of our work to demonstrate the impact of Digimap, EDINA has calculated the commercial value of all the data downloaded and maps created for printing. We calculated the values per institution for the period August 2012 to May 2013 then totalled them; this came to approximately £39 .5 million.  This estimate is a conservative one as we reduce the quantity of data downloaded by 60% to account for duplication. When all the maps printed and data downloaded were included in the calculation (i.e assuming users would continue to take their own data and maps, and not share them) the value rises to nearly £71 million.

Digimap Data and Print map values from 2010 to 2013
Click to enlarge image.

We know that some data is downloaded multiple times within an institution, for example by the students in a class exercise or for specific study sites. We found that only 40% of the data taken from Digimap over a period of time was unique to an average institution. We believe that if institutions were paying commercial rates for their data it would be more likely that they would try to download it once and then circulate it to those who need it; for this reason the value calculations only include 40% of the total. However, there is considerable variation between institutions as to how much is unique; those that do more research or are smaller in size tend to have a greater proportion of unique downloads, so we have included the 100% figure as a ceiling value.

In total, over the past three academic years over £190 million (£100 million at 40%) worth of print maps and data has been served up from Digimap to subscribing institutions.

How the Costs are Calculated

Porportions of Digimap Collections Values
Click to enlarge image.

The costs used in our calculations for the data downloaded come from the data suppliers, and include any relevant multipliers or discounts made publicly available on their websites.

The data values are calculated on a per product / per institution basis, with the data preparation and licensing charges assigned only once per product, per institution. Many of the data collections are licensed based on the number of users who have access to the data; with increasing numbers of users a multiplier is applied to a base cost.  We applied the relevant multipliers based on the number of active registered users for each collection at an institution. SeaZone data is provided commercially through a third party website; we picked the closest match possible to the data we provide though this does have a lower cost, again making the estimates conservative.

We capped data values at the price it would cost to take national coverage of each product, making it impossible to charge more for any one product than it would to supply the entire dataset for use by the whole institution.

The values for the print maps (including saved images in Carto and Ancient Roam) are calculated by finding the cheapest available commercial map prints from websites such as eMapsite, NLS and FiND. These values are updated every time we calculate the values.

What We Didn’t Include

Digimap Screen Maps Made 2010 to 2013
Click to enlarge image.

No monetary values were assigned to the millions of screen maps that are produced from Digimap; we couldn’t find a comparable site! Also, the value calculated doesn’t take into account any of the support materials, training courses and help desk facilities that are all part of the Digimap service.

No OpenData downloads or maps created from OpenData are included in the calculation, despite the advantages of producing them from Digimap over other websites.

However the biggest saving that isn’t included in these value calculations is your time. We only charged the data supplier’s preparation and licensing costs once per product or order, in line with each companies policy. In reality there would be many orders occurring throughout an academic year as new research questions are raised. This all costs time, time which the data suppliers will charge for or that institutional staff would have to take to put in requests for data or to create and manage a repository for spatial data.

Digimap does all this work for its subscribers along with providing a high quality mapping interface, 24 hour access to expensive high quality data and maps.

Over the coming weeks we will be sending out each institution’s values to Digimap site representatives. If you are interested in the value of the maps and data your institution has been using then get in touch with them.  If you are unsure who your site representative is then please contact us:

  • email: edina@ed.ac.uk
  • phone: 0131 650 3302

Digimap: Internet Explorer 10 Issue

ecls/ / Digimap News, Help, Of Interest

For those of you using Internet Explorer (IE) version 10, you may have noticed that the maps in Roam can get muddled up. This browser is standard for Windows 8 and is also available as an upgrade if you are using Windows 7.

Muddled maps in IE10

The error is caused by the underlying technology EDINA uses to put the maps into your web browser.  A patch for the particular piece of software that causes the issue has been released and we are now working to incorporate this into Roam.

Until this fix has been released you can prevent the error from occurring by switching IE 10 to run in IE 9 mode. To do this simply press F12 on your keyboard when you are using IE 10 and change the Browser Mode: to Internet Explorer 9.  The image below shows how this is done:

Changing IE10 to IE9 Mode
Click the image to enlarge it.

This issue affects all the different Roam mappers, Digimap, Ancient, Geology and Marine, however all will be fixed by making the change to the browser mode.

If you have any questions about this or any other issue with the Digimap services then please get in touch:

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

Printing maps of GB from Digimap Roam

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest

Since the addition of new print functions to Roam, it is now easier to print a map showing the whole of Great Britain.

Print Interface for getting a National View GB Map
Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
[Click to enlarge]
  •  Log in to Digimap and click on Roam in the Ordnance Survey Collection.
  • Use the slider bar in the upper right corner of the map to zoom in once to show the National View.  Don’t change the position of the map itself.
  • Click the Print button on the top toolbar (top right hand corner)
  • Set the print scale to 1:1.1 million (1:1100000)
  • Choose A0 portrait and an appropriate format from the drop-down lists (PDF will generate reasonably quickly)
  • Now click-and-drag the preview map directly upwards (north) so that Arbroath (shown on the east coast of Scotland) is at the very top edge of the preview map.
  • Click Generate Print File
  • The resultant file in PDF format will be around 2.9MB

 

If you prefer to use a different map product, you could use the following variations on the above instructions:

Print Interface for getting a Regional View GB map
Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
[Click to enlarge]
  • Zoom in twice on the map using the slider bar (to view the County View map). Again, don’t change the location of the map.
  • In the print interface, set your scale to 1:1,100,000 and your paper size to A0 portrait, as previously
  • Now drag the map northwards so that the town of Lauder sits just below the top edge of the preview map.
  • This file in PDF format will be around 11MB

 

 

 

 

These instructions may need some minor alterations depending on your monitor resolution. You may find you need to drag the map either a little more or a little less further north in order to see both Shetland and the Scilly Isles on your printed map.

 

Using Marine Roam to find interesting things beyond topography

ecls/ / Digimap News, Of Interest

Marine Roam is a fantastic service which provides access to SeaZone HydroSpatial data for the waters around Great Britain.  There are many applications for the data and the expanding offshore renewables sector, and associated research around it, immediately springs to mind.  However, did you know that you can use Marine Roam for some historical sleuthing?

70 years ago today, 27th march 1943,  HMS Dasher was sailing up the Firth of Clyde heading for Greenock.  HMS Dasher had been converted into an aircraft carrier and was home to 8 Swordfish and 2 Sea Hurricanes. The planes were being refuelled following landing practice when there was a series of massive explosions.  The ensuing fire could not be contained and the ship was abandoned. It sank just 6 minutes after the first explosion. While 149 seamen were recovered, 379 lost their lives.

Wrecks are marked in the HydroSpatial data and can be queried in Marine Roam.  It is a little tricky to find the wreck of HMS Dasher.  I knew it was situated in the Firth of Clyde, mid-way between Arran and the mainland, about 5 miles south of Little Cumbrae. However, the only wreck I could find was that of the Antares, a fishing trawler which sank in 1990 after its nets were apparently snagged by a submarine.  After a bit of hunting I found some strange boat shaped features, seemingly related to military wrecks which for the most part appear to have been sunk during exercises.  One of these marks the resting place of HMS Dasher. Below is a screenshot of the attribute information held in the HydroSpatial data about her.

 

Wreck of HMS Dasher in Marine Roam

You can log into Marine Roam and use the Info Tool to explore features on the map. Alternatively, you can download the data through Marine Download and load it into a GIS for further exploration.

So what other famous ship wrecks can you find in Marine Roam?  Why not post a comment with the coordinates of your favorite sea-floor find.

Much of the background information used in this blog post was taken from the fantastically detailed records available through the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland website.