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
//Update 12/02/2015: The contents of this blog post have been moved to the Digimap Help system and can be found at the following location (link opens in a new window):
For an overview of Building Height Attribute please see the following page (link opens in a new window):
http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/digimapgis/index.htm#bha/bha.htm
//Update 12/02/2015: The contents of this blog post have been moved to the Digimap Help system and can be found at the following location (link opens in a new window):
For an overview of Building Height Attribute please see the following page (link opens in a new window):
http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/digimapgis/index.htm#bha/bha.htm
//To get the most from OS MasterMap data it is usually best to convert it from its supplied format, GML, to a format better suited to the software you are going to use it in. For our CAD users Digimap has been offering the DWG format for several months (see previous blog post); now we are offering a format that makes the data easier to use in GIS software.
Although Shapefile is still the most commonly requested GIS format it cannot handle the large file sizes (over 2GB) that could be requested from the Data Download service; an area of 100km2 in an urban centre would exceed this limit. We therefore turned to the File Geodatabase format that works in the two most commonly used GIS software applications, ArcGIS and QGIS. There is more information about Geodatabases on Wikipedia here: Wikipedia -ArcGIS Geodatabase
To select the File Geodatabase format, add some MasterMap to your basket in Data Download. Once in the basket you can click the down arrow in the Format column and change it from the default GML to File Geodatabase:
Geodatabase formats are the recommended formats for use in ArcGIS software, being the most efficient for data storage and analysis. The format supports the use of .lyr files for styling the data and EDINA has provided some for the MasterMap data downloaded from Digimap.
The data can be added to a map in ArcGIS and QGIS in the usual way, though in QGIS you need to use Add vector layer –> Directory rather than a Database as you may assume.
Styling information for both ArcGIS and QGIS has been provided by EDINA in .lyr and QML formats, these can be found at the bottom of Digimap’s help page for OS MasterMap. These representations give enough information to view the data in a style that OS MasterMap is commonly viewed in. The help page also contains a link to the official Ordnance Survey SLD styling information, please see the PDF that comes with the SLD files for information on how to use them.
There are help pages for adding styling information here:
If you require any help on using File Geodatabases from Digimap or any other dataset or format then please get in touch:
//Update 12/02/2015: The contents of this blog post have been moved to the Digimap Help system and can be found at the following location (link opens in a new window):
For an overview of Building Height Attribute please see the following page (link opens in a new window):
http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/digimapgis/index.htm#bha/bha.htm
//Even though we update our mapping data throughout the year we still make a large number of changes over the summer.
Along with the general updates to MasterMap and a few other products the biggest change over the summer has been to swap the 1:10 000 Scale Raster maps to VectorMap Local Raster maps in Digimap Roam. Ordnance Survey have retired the 1:10 000 data, so we have removed it from the online maps, though you do still have a couple of options if you are a fan of the product:
The table below details all of the latest changes we have made showing the currency dates of all Ordnance Survey datasets in Digimap.
| Ordnance Survey product | Data Currency | Last updated in Roam |
|---|---|---|
| OS MasterMap® Topography Layer | May 2014 | July 2014 |
| OS VectorMap® Local | July 2014 | September 2014 |
| OS VectorMap® Local Raster | July 2014 | September 2014 |
| 1:25 000 Scale Colour Raster | March 2014 | March 2014 |
| 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster | June 2014 | July 2014 |
| Meridian™ 2 | January 2014 | March 2014 |
| OS Terrain™ 50 | July 2013 | October 2013 |
| OS VectorMap® District Raster | September 2014 | September 2014 |
| Strategi® | January 2014 | March 2014 |
| 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster | June 2014 | September 2014 |
| MiniScale® | January 2014 | February 2014 |
| Ordnance Survey product | Data Currency | Last updated in Data Download |
|---|---|---|
| OS MasterMap® Integrated Transport Network™ (ITN) Layer |
May 2014 | September 2014 |
| OS MasterMap® Topography Layer | May 2013 | September 2014 |
| OS MasterMap® Topography Layer Raster | June 2013 | October 2013 |
| Backdrop Mapping | ||
| * 1:10 000 Scale Raster | June 2013 | October 2013 |
| OS Street View® | April 2014 | April 2014 |
| 1:25 000 Scale Colour Raster | March 2014 | March 2014 |
| OS VectorMap® Local Raster | July 2014 | September 2014 |
| OS VectorMap® District Raster | September 2014 | September 2014 |
| 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster | June 2014 | July 2014 |
| 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster | June 2014 | June 2014 |
| MiniScale® | January 2014 | January 2014 |
| Land and Height Data | ||
| * Land-Form PROFILE® | November 2009 | September 2011 |
| * Land-Form PROFILE® DTM | November 2009 | September 2011 |
| OS Terrain™ 50 | July 2014 | September 2014 |
| OS Terrain™ 50 DTM | July 2014 | September 2014 |
| * Land-Form PANORAMA® | November 1993 | September 2011 |
| * Land-Form PANORAMA ® DTM | June 2006 | September 2011 |
| Vector Data | ||
| OS VectorMap® Local | July 2014 | September 2014 |
| OS VectorMap® District | September 2014 | September 2014 |
| Meridian™ 2 | January 2014 | February 2014 |
| Strategi® | January 2014 | February 2014 |
| Boundary and Location Data | ||
| Boundary-Line™ | May 2014 | May 2014 |
| Code-Point® | August 2014 | September 2014 |
| Code-Point® Open | August 2014 | September 2014 |
| Code-Point® with polygons | April 2014 | July 2014 |
| OS Locator™ | May 2014 | May 2014 |
| 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer | June 2014 | June 2014 |
* Land-Form PANORAMA®, PROFILE® and 1:10 000 Scale Raster products have been withdrawn by Ordnance Survey and are no longer updated.
Remember there have also been substantial changes made to the Geology and Marine data holdings in recent months:
Please also note that there are a lot more formats available than before so you may not have to convert the data after you have downloaded it:
It is now easier to see which formats are available for the data product you are downloading and change it if you need to, this blog post shows you how:
Please let us know if you have any questions about the new data or any other changes and additions to the Digimap service
//We have updated all the new style Download interfaces in Digimap to make it easier to change the options for the data you have selected. When you have added some data to your basket you can now see more clearly what can be changed; the version (date and style), the format and the layers.
Where these options are highlighted in blue with a ▼ next to them you can click them and get a drop down menu with the alternatives.
Make the changes you need, add a name, then click on the Request Download button to order your data.
We have also made a slight change to the Product Information pages for some of the data products too. Where the data is available on tiles you can now click a Show Grid button to see the tile outlines on the map. When you make a selection on the map you will get all the grid tiles that are partially or entirely within your orange selection area.
This feature is particularly useful for data products like the 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 scale geology data and the Marine HydroView Charts, where the data isn’t a continuous coverage and your selected area may contain no tiles. When you click the Show Grid button it will also automatically open the menu from the right of the map which allows you to change the grid shown or switch it off.
Remember, you open the Product Information panels by clicking on the blue Info links in the list of data products to the left of the map.
Please let us know if you have any questions about these changes or anything else:
//We have now added detailed 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 geological mapping data and 1:625,000 hydrogeological data to Geology Download. The mapping data is the most detailed geological mapping available from the British Geological Survey (BGS), consisting of four polygon layers:
…and one linear features layer, including:
The products cover around 30% of the UK most of the which is provided by the 1:10,000 scale data (approx 28% of the UK), as the coverage is not complete we have added overlays to Geology Download to guide you to the areas where it can be found. The BGS have more map tiles in production for this dataset and we will add them to the service as they become available to us. The coverage of the data can be seen in the Download interface below as the dark blue areas of Great Britain.
The 1:25,000 has a much smaller coverage, but with little overlap with the 1:10,000 it makes a good companion dataset to fill in the gaps. The 1:25,000 data also fills the gaps in the 1:50,000 data in Wales, again the coverage can be seen in the interface below as the dark blue areas.
To access the coverage maps click on the double arrow to open the Show Grid / Overlay panel on the right side of the map; you can then add the grids to the map to see where data is available. We highly recommend you do this before selecting your area for download as it is not possible to add data to your basket if you choose a product with no coverage for your that area. If you find that the Add to Basket button remains grey after you have selected your products it probably means that one or more of them do not have coverage for the area you have chosen. If you click on the grey button an error message will tell you which products are unavailable, either remove these from the order or switch on the overlay and choose a different location that has the data.
In addition to the 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 scale mapping datasets we have also added the BGS OpenData 1:625,000 scale digital hydrogeological data to Geology Download. This data can be used to indicate the aquifer potential of an area in generalised terms. Areas are categorised into one of three groups:
The 1:625 000 scale data may be used as a guide to the aquifers at a regional or national level, but should not be relied on for local information.
The addition of these new datasets brings the total number of different BGS products in Geology Download to 14. We hope to add the detailed mapping datasets to Geology Roam later in the year as well as some of the other types of data as overlays or basemaps.
If you have any questions about the new datasets or any requests for geology data we don’t yet have then please get in touch:
//Marine Digimap has updated datasets in its brand new Marine Download facility. The new interface provides a single place to get both Hydrospatial data and charts. The Hydrospatial data is now the newer Hydrospatial One dataset from SeaZone which also provides access to much higher resolution gridded bathymetry data, one arc second instead of six. The Charted Raster dataset has been replaced with Hydroview Charts; these are still the same scanned Admiralty Charts though they are much more recent and include some small scale charts covering whole oceans (still not for navigation though!).
Marine Download works in the same way as Data Download, Environment Download and Geology Download; you select your area, pick your products and download the data. The main difference is with datasets as these don’t all form continuous coverage of the UK Coastal waters. We have therefore included overlays that show where the tiles of each dataset can be found. These are very useful when choosing your data, just open the “Show Grid / Overlay” menu on the right of the map and pick the overlay for the data you are selecting.
Remember there can be a lot of overlap between the Hydroview Charts and also large areas with no data, you will get all the charts that present for the area and scale band that you choose. If there is no data for the area you have selected then you will not be able to add anything to the basket, if you try you will get an error message informing you of the products with no coverage.
For a full description on how to use the new interface, have a look at the help page: How to use Marine Download
The data in Marine Download is broken into three categories, Hydrospatial, Hydroview Charts and Bathymetry. In the Hydrospatial category the same themes as before can be found, the Hydroview Charts are broken up into categories depending on their scale including those extra charts with wider ocean or global extents.
The old interfaces for downloading data, Hydrospatial Download and Charted Raster Download, will be withdrawn in the coming weeks, if you have teaching materials that include them then please update these as soon as possible.
If you have any questions about the new download or the withdrawal of the old interfaces then please get in touch:
//We are getting a few reports from users experiencing issues when printing PDF maps using Chrome web browser. Unfortunately, the map watermark and any semi-transparent annotations are being printed as solid filled features. We have discovered that this occurs when the PDF is viewed and printed from within the Chrome browser, using Chrome’s in built PDF plugin.
We have investigated this problem and discovered that the bug is with Chrome and occurs with all PDFs with semi-tranparent layers not just those created by Digimap. The problem only happens on Windows computers with versions of Chrome released since the end of April (Chrome 34.0.1847 onwards).
Digimap users with Chrome should see a warning when they open the Print… window, informing them about the problem.
As the alert message suggests you can disable the plug-in to prevent it from opening PDFs or you can use the following workaround.
We hope that the issue is resolved by Google who develop the Chrome browser, it has been reported to them. Should you wish to disable the plug-in entirely then you can follow the instructions with the image below. You can also download the map as a file to your computer, and then open it directly with Adobe Reader, this is usually the best option anyway as it allows you to print the PDF multiple times or store it if you don’t want to print it just yet.
If you need any assistance with opening your PDF map, please contact the EDINA helpdesk:
//
EDINA’s Geoforum 2014 was a great success with an audience of around 80 delegates and EDINA staff all enjoying an informative and entertaining programme. The aim of the event was to engage with users and support staff and highlight new features in EDINA’s core Jisc funded services.
Other than this summary there are several other ways to find out what happened at this event:
Peter Gibbs is a well known for his BBC and Met Office weather forecasts and in his presentation he showed us the work that was being done by the Met Office and Environment Agency in combining their data and resources to predict not just where there is going to be rain but where the rain is likely to cause flooding.
The slides for Peter’s talk can be viewed here:
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Flood Forecasting – Peter Gibbs
Peter has a keen interest in improving public levels of understanding of science through better communication and this was very evident in his presentation. He managed to explain the complexities of how weather data was collected and used for forecasting in a very accessible way, leaving the audience with a much better understanding of how our weather and in particular flooding is predicted. We also got to see just how much data the met office use, up to 70 recordings at different heights for grid cells up to 1km2.
A key message implied in Peter’s talk was the critical importance of be able to create usable and appropriate information for your audience from the large amounts of complex and varied data available. This is something that as scientists we should all aspire to.
The next presentation came from a recent MSc in GIS Graduate, Darius Bazazi. The presentation followed on from the keynote nicely as it show how various datasets, some from Digimap, some from other sources, were combined to improve the science behind panning natural measures to control flooding. The slides for this presentation are available here:
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Using EDINA Datasets in a Hydrology Project – Darius Bazazi
The main issue tackled by Darius was to improve a key variable that decides whether an area is suitable for natural flood management, PROPWET (the proportion of time soils are wet). Darius used datasets such as the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology’s Landcover data to try and improve this value, bringing in vegetation cover and land use as factors that could influence it.
Darius’ talk showed how important the availability of data from a wide range of sources is key to research such as his. A large amount of researchers time, from graduate level upwards, can be taken up by finding and requesting / ordering data; Digimap and other geoservices from EDINA exist largely to reduce or eliminate the wait for data.
Carol Blackwood finished off the morning’s presentations with a talk about the improvements EDINA are making to the support of their geoservices. The slides for this presentation can be found here:
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Geoservices Support – Carol Blackwood
Carol first told us about the work under way to replace the registration system for the Digimap collections. The main piece of good news is that there will no longer be a wait between registering and accessing the service. The new system will use the familiar email confirmation link to allow access once the registration form has been filled in. This will ensure that users have speedier access and also that their email is correct for collecting their downloaded data.
Carol also highlighted a few other things we are doing to support our users and also to improve the information available for site reps to promote Digimap. Firstly there is the new live chat system that allows people to have a text chat with the user support team. The chat window can be accessed from any of the help pages or the resource centre where it appears as a pop-up:
Other resources highlighted in the presentation were:
Finally Carol talked about the training offered by the Geosupport team, if you are interested in attending or hosting a training course then please get in touch with us: edina@ed.ac.uk. We can also arrange to do some bespoke training workshops or webinars for certain subject areas.
LunchDuring the lunch break we were treated to some delicious food and got to see some interesting data and software from the following people.
Most importantly we were given plenty of time to speak to others at the event, sharing ideas and thoughts on the presentations and demonstrations we had seen.
Guy McGarva brought us up-to-date with all the latest additions and enhancements made to Digimap over the past year, and then went on to highlight the improvements we will be introducing next. The slides for this presentation can be found here:
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Guy showed how we are now using the results from the impact surveys and other contact with users to guide and prioritise the developments to the service. He also highlighted the huge amount of work that has gone on in the past year to the back-end architecture of the service that will make it much more reliable, maintainable and flexible going forward.
In the near future you can expect to see a new Download interface for Marine, after which will follow a similar upgrade to Historic Download including a better basket for all the downloaders, where you will be able to select data formats and dates more easily.
Have a look through the slides to see more of the upcoming improvements to the Digimap Service.
The last part of the day was a welcome trip outside in the sunshine to see how Fieldtrip GB could be used for Citizen Science projects. The slides for this presentation can be found here:
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Citizen Science in your Pocket – Addy Pope
Addy Pope led the group through an exercise where a form was designed to collect data about graffiti which was then deployed to the groups smart phones and tablets. Everybody then took their devices outside and began collecting data such as photos and the type of graffiti found. The devices take care of logging the location, though the app does allow you to modify this if it isn’t quite right.
Fieldtrip GB had some glowing praise from the delegates, everyone seemed to find the it intuitive and. easy to use. A very good way to crowd source data without an expensive outlay.
A very big thank you to all those who attended Geoforum, we at EDINA feel it was a tremendously successful event.
The days presentations an exhibitions told a story, starting with the importance of geospatial data, especially to bodies of such strategic importance as the Met Office. We heard how research carried out at academic institutions was adding to the accuracy of the data and the models that use the data, and how important access to the data was in order to carry out this research.
The exhibitors showed us the next generation of data along with some of the software to process it. And finally, the presenters from EDINA showed what we are doing to improve the accessibility to the data; not just by making it available but by providing the support and training to realise its full potential.
Jisc c
ontinue to provide funding for services such as Digimap, GoGeo and Unlock which form the backbone of geospatial services available to the academic community in Great Britain. The Geoforum allows funders and service providers to engage with the user community which in turn helps focus service improvements.
A final thank you to everyone who helped make the event happen, the EDINA staff who helped organise, present and pack away all the equipment; the exhibitors; Bluesky Catering; and the staff at the Informatics Forum.
