Ordnance Survey

Data Collection today and

in the future

John Cartledge Strategic Business Development Manager

May 2013

• Ordnance Survey has developed and maintained a

National geographic database of Great Britain since

1791

• Civilian organisation since 1983; 1150 staff

• Independent Government Department and Executive

Agency reporting directly to a Government Minister

• Trading Fund since April 1999

• Headquarters in Southampton with 28 field offices

around Great Britain

Ordnance Survey has always

surveyed change

• Creates and maintains the ‘master map’ of Great

Britain from which others derive benefit

• Manages complete national large scale digital data

down to building level detail

• Maintains a database of ½ billion features with

approximately 5,000 changes made daily

• A commitment that real world features are

represented in the database within six months of

completion on the ground (the NGD)

• From the database, Ordnance Survey produces a

range of digital data and paper maps for business,

leisure, educational and administrative use

Provides the underpinning geographic framework for

Great Britain

Ordnance Survey today

Formerly a total reliance on field operations

But now …. the technologies and pace have improved

…

Two sides of Ordnance Survey

• We sell around 2 million maps per year to the

consumer market, representing around 7% of our

trading revenue

• Elegant and reliable mapping is at the heart of

our public brand

• Around 10% of Britain’s GDP is underpinned by our maintained, high-resolution data

• Maintaining a detailed database is the core of our business today

The need for a referencing framework

• In Britain there are well-established sources of base information

• There are many established users with different applications

• The challenge - establish principles to make information sources

accessible and connectable

Address

Building

Fire records Census

Education Housing

Stock (condition) Property tax

A geographic database… to what benefit?

• Intelligent data enabling integration of public and private data

– every feature uniquely identified

OS OpenData - Datasets

• OS Street View

• 1: 50 000 Gazetteer

• 1: 250 000 Colour Raster

• OS Locator

• Boundary-Line

• Code-Point Open

• Meridian 2

• Strategi

• MiniScale

• Land-Form PANORAMA

• OS VectorMap District

OS OpenData supporting public service delivery Nottinghamshire County Council grits A and B roads and major bus routes,

which account for about a third of the county’s road network, during the

winter weather. The Council produced the map below using OS OpenData to

show its residents which routes are gritted.

OpenSpace Examples

New address products

AddressBase™ Premium Represents the full lifecycle of an address or

property

AddressBase™ Plus A current view of an address or property

AddressBase™ A current view of a mailing address providing

its precise location.

Products created from the GeoPlace Hub

AddressBase™ AddressBase™ Plus AddressBase™ Premium

Everything happens somewhere

I want to …

my data

display

as points

on a map

Capturing and maintaining our Data

How do we store the data and maintain

currency?

• Instead of maintaining a static

map we update and maintain a

database in layers and

themes

• We aim to collect once and

use many times

• 99.6% of significant features

are represented in the

database within

six months of completion

What we collect

To meet customer needs we collect many different types of data:

More than 500 million different features are mapped in detail.

Imagery Topographic features Networks ADDRESS

Every day life…

…change happens

North Swindon – peri-urban development

October 2004 February 2005 August 2005 February 2006 August 2006 February 2007 August 2007 February 2008 August 2008

Our change

intelligence

engine

• a national picture of what is

changing and where

• >1m house units of current

changes known, of which

200k are ready for survey

Updating the National Geographic Database

Field survey

Aerial survey &

photogrammetry

Data from

external sources

500 million

records

5,000 daily

House Unit

changes

Cu

sto

mers

National

Geographic

Database

Change

intelligence

Collecting the data

5000 changes made to the

central database every day to

reflect the dynamic landscape

in which we live.

Data currency:

All major change is captured

within 6 months of completion.

Field data capture technology:

Heavy investments in RTK GPS – OS Net

Typical Installation

OS Net

• Near national 1-3cm 3d GPS

coverage achieved

• GPS+GLONASS network in place

around London

• Free GPS products from;

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/GPS

Collecting the data

Remote Sensing

We capture up to 60,000km of photography each year which are

used in production for updating our Imagery, Height and TOPO

products.

Height

Topography

Imagery

Image

Acquisition

Image Processing

Image Capture

Managing our Data and Creating Products

Geographic information continues to come of age

• The last 2-3 years have seen a sea-

change in capability, capacity and demand

within the GI market – in terms of data,

software/systems and from users in terms

of their requirements

• As technological constraints recede, users

are demanding much more – not only of

content in its own right but also in terms of

how it is structured to better model (rather

than simply depict) the real world

What are our users are looking for?

Customer feedback over the last year has remained consistent and

given us strong guiding principles for:

• Consistency of content between legacy scales

• Increased cartographic flexibility

• Structural representation of topographic features - greater

emphasis on what a feature is in addition to what it looks like

from above

• More feature attribution and maintenance requirements

• A shift from a 2D data structure to one which is 3D-ready

• Greater usability – especially in ordering, order fulfilment and

consumption

Products which add

context to user information

and for which cartographic

design is essential

Machine readable data

products which provide

structure and descriptive

information and to which

users can add their own

reference information

Services which enable ease of access and greater usability

across our portfolio of products

Greater simplicity in our portfolio

Digital

Terrain/Surface

Models

Heighted surface

features

Heighted

elevated features

National

Geographic

Database

What does ‘3D’ mean?

Ordnance Survey’s 3D parameters

Survey standards

Underpinning,

interoperable, analytical

Maintained

Nationally consistent

Economically viable

What does ‘analytical’ mean?

• Which buildings are taller than 50m and are within 200m of the

railway?

• How do I reach the shop I’m looking for on the third floor?

• What addresses are at risk from high winds?

• Which areas of the city are quietest?

The output more and more is NOT a map, but an

answer to a question

Conclusions

• National mapping agencies are relied upon to provide an

underpinning geographic referencing framework

• Expectations and requirements are changing dramatically

• Products need to be both spatially and temporally joined-up

• Many applications require continual maintenance of geographic

features throughout their lifecycle

• All parts of the supply chain need to work more efficiently to

deliver and utilise change information to the end user