Britain from Above – Land Use Maps

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

ESRI- CHEST Community Event

A significant number of Digimap users have access to GIS software from ESRI (e.g. ArcGIS, Productivity Suite, MapManager…). ESRI software is available at discounted rates for UK academics via Chest.

On 18th September 2008, ESRI and Chest are holding a joint community event at the University of Leeds. All users of ESRI software within the Chest licence agreement are invited and encouraged to attend.

The event is free, and more details including a programme can be found on the ESRI website. We look forward to seeing you there.

Reminder: Land-Line Withdrawal

his is a further reminder that Land-Line.Plus data will no longer be available through Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection from 2 September 2008.

If you have existing holdings of Land-Line.Plus data, you may continue to use these until the end of the current licence period, that is, until 31 July 2009.

All Land-Line.Plus data must be deleted at the end of the current licence period. From 1 August 2009 Digimap users will no longer be licensed to use Land-Line.Plus data.

Land-Line.Plus replaced by OS MasterMap Topography Layer

Free GIS courses from ESRI

As of 4 August 2008, the following courses will be FREE. Previously they have only been available via a subscription to ESRI Virtual Campus.

1. Introduction to GIS Data ReViewer
2. Introduction to Map Production System-Atlas
3. Introduction to Map Production System-Atlas (for ArcGIS 9.0-9.1)

If you wish to take this training, visit the ESRI Training and Education website http://training.esri.com where you can enroll for free.

If you have previously accessed these courses through the ESRI Virtual Campus, you will continue to have access to the course. If you have any questions, please contact ESRI directly.

Access difficulties: 1 August, 12.20hrs

There are currently difficulties connecting to electronic resources via the OpenAthens gateway. This includes access to Digimap for users at those institutions using OpenAthens. Trying to log in using this method may result in a message saying that your institution does not subscribe to this service.

Access to Digimap for those using their institution’s own Identity Provider is unaffected.

Further information will be posted here and on the Digimap login page when available.

Emergency Maintenance – 29 July

Owing to a hardware failure over the weekend of 26/27 July, some emergency maintenance is required on Digimap’s service machine.

All Digimap Collections will be unavailable betwen 09.00 and 14.00 hours on Tuesday 29 July 2008. This will allow engineers to fix the problem. Full service will be restored as quickly as possible. Further updates will be posted here and on the Digimap login page as and when available.

Update: 23 July emergency maintenance

Following a hardware failure yesterday evening, engineers have now identified the faulty machine part. This is scheduled for replacement tomorrow, Thursday 24 July.

As a consequence, all Digimap Collections will be unavailable between 10.00hrs and 13.00hrs.

While the faulty part remains in place, Digimap may become unavailable at short notice. EDINA staff are monitoring all services closely during office hours and will endeavour to maintain access as long as possible.

Thank you for your forebearance.

Emergency maintenance: 23 July

On the evening of Tuesday 22 July, the service machine which runs all Digimap facilities suffered a serious hardware failure. This meant that all services became unavailable and engineers were unable to access the machine. This morning, Wednesday 23 July, engineers have managed to identify the problem, and have temporarily restored full service capability.

However, until the faulty hardware is replaced, all Digimap Collections will remain unstable and may become unavailable at any time. Engineers are monitoring the service closely, and further information will be posted when available.

Replacing faulty hardware
Later today, it will be necessary to withdraw access to Digimap in order to replace the faulty hardware. As much notice of this as possible will be given, both here and on the Digimap login page.

Hardware failure is an unfortunate and unpredictable hazard; EDINA is doing as much as possible to mitigate the impact of such events and apologises for any inconvenience caused.