Introducing our OS Data Hub
Update: 1 July 2020, OS Data Hub now live, sign up here
The OS Data Hub is the new way to access our authoritative location data. It will replace the current OS ordering systems (OpenData Portal, OS Orders and API shop) with one mobile-friendly platform with a single sign on to give you a better user experience.
Colour blind friendly mapping: where are we taking it next?
Following her blog on the release of two new colour vision deficiency (CVD) friendly styles for OS Open Zoomstack last December, Graduate Technical Consultant Jessica Baker talks through the feedback we’ve had, where our CVD mapping is going next, and new ways you can access these styles.
The initial release of the two new CVD friendly stylesheets in December 2019 was met with a keen interest, and you can find these stylesheets in a variety of file types on Github. Since then, we have been working hard to make more people aware of the benefits it could have for them. We’ve had lots of feedback from people and are excited to share with you the new direction we are taking this accessible mapping.
Can you help colour London’s buildings?
Created by The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, Colouring London is a free online platform set up to crowdsource information and share expertise on London’s buildings to make the city more sustainable. We’ve supported this project from day one and are delighted to be part of it.
What?
Using OS data for the building outlines, this project is designed to collect, collate and visualise around 50 types of statistical data for every building in London. These are grouped into 12 core categories: location, land use, building type, community assets, age and history, size and shape, construction, team, sustainability, street context and environment, planning and protection and “like me?”.
The GeoDataViz team’s favourite maps of 2019
Mappy New Year! 2019 was a great year for cartography, especially geo data visualisation. We loved seeing such amazing maps and visuals being produced by some very talented people, and the standard just seems to be getting better and better. Inspired by all the brilliant work we’ve seen, we thought we’d pull together some of our favourites. There are too many to include so this list is by no means exhaustive, but we hope you enjoy our picks.
Surfing Saco Bay, Margot Carpenter
Created by independent cartographer Margot Carpenter, this stunning map depicts Maine’s Saco Bay. The detail is incredible, and we love how the map focuses on the bay’s underwater topography and wave dynamics and how they fuel the bays amazing surfing conditions. There is also a beautiful compass rose that illustrates wave height and a visualisation depicting how bathymetry and waves create surf!
Britain’s most complex motorway junctions
By Lucie Woellenstein, Graduate Data Scientist
Did you know that there are 50 motorways in Great Britain with over 8,300 km of roads and a whopping 666 junctions? How many junctions have you taken? Or will you be taking as you head off for the summer holidays? Ever tried to come off a motorway junction, only to find you’ve taken the wrong exit and are now heading in the wrong direction? Maybe you’ve driven through the famous ‘Spaghetti Junction’ in Birmingham, and wondered what it looks like from above? Or perhaps you’ve been perplexed at how the most complex of junctions somehow actually work?
Well here at Ordnance Survey, we’ve spent many hours over the years thinking about the interwoven laces of motorway junctions. Not from the perspective of a driver, but that of a cartographer. From data architects conceptually modelling how to capture data, to surveyors capturing the exact GPS locations of our roads, and to the cartographers that digitise the maps you use to travel along the motorways – a lot of thought goes into how to cartographically represent junctions in a way they make sense to the map reader.
