Having launched our OS Open Zoomstack trial three weeks ago, we thought now is a good time to reflect on feedback and to offer you some more examples demonstrating how the new dataset can be utilised.
With the English football season about to kick-off for 2018-19, our GeoDataViz team have been visualising the 92 football league grounds in one huge poster. The Premier League, The Championship, League One and League Two grounds have all been mapped using OS OpenData and put in order by stadium capacity.
Since announcing Southampton Children’s Hospital Charity as our corporate charity, we’ve been busy raising money – over £1800 so far!
We’ve organised an array of fundraising activities including a football tournament, cake sale, World Cup quiz and a charity run. We of course had a map sale too, but we’re sure you knew that! Below are just a few of our highlights.
As we begin the summer holidays and the heatwave continues, you may well find yourself heading to a beach with a pleasure pier. But which is the longest pleasure pier in Great Britain?
We’ve come up with the stats for the top 10 longest pleasure piers in Great Britain according to the National Piers Society, and we even have the dates of when they opened and original sizes of the ones which have had extensions.
While we have all been out embracing the heatwave at every opportunity, as a result our Flying Unit has had to contend with a busier airspace. As well as all the air shows at this time of year, when the weather is good, those with PPLs (Private Pilot Licence) are more likely to take to the air.
Despite this meaning they have to be extra vigilant, our Flying Unit has been making the most of this unique weather window with unprecedented results. The best way to demonstrate it is with the below graph. This shows the stark comparison of our flying season volumes against previous years.
As detailed in our previous blog, our sprint team’s role at the festival was to create the first combined underground map of the region in collaboration with key stakeholders such as utilities, local authorities and partners. The idea was to create a Combined Infrastructure Map (CIM) for Newcastle and its surrounding area including water, wastewater, gas, electricity, telecoms and other underground services.
One thing we’re often asked about is when someone has followed a public right of way shown on our map and found no visible footpath on the ground. Why is this? Public rights of way information is sent to us by local authorities, and a right of way doesn’t necessarily mean a footpath on the ground. We’re also often asked about blocked or overgrown rights of way. These need to be reported to your local authority too and, if any changes on our maps are required, they will pass that information along.
We also map rights of way permissive footpaths and bridleways as well as byways. And, if you don’t know the key differences or symbols of each of the types, you’re in the right place to find out!
Following our OS OpenData formats trial, we’re continuing to work to improve access to our opendata offerings. Our team have developed OS Open Zoomstack which makes elements of our opendata available as one map in one file to be used for GIS, web, mobile or offline use.
You can try out OS Open Zoomstack over the next three months. All we ask is for your feedback to shape its development for potential wider release. We believe that this will improve access to OS data and help current and future users to use our data in new ways. The trial is also a fantastic opportunity to test how we approach the development of Open MasterMap recently announced by the Geospatial Commission. This is an important step on the Open MasterMap implementation project highlighting our commitment to working with developers and the geospatial community to improve accessibility and usability of OS data.
OS is Britain's mapping agency. We make the most up-to-date and accurate maps of the country. But we're also a digital business, and we use our content to help governments, companies and individuals to be more effective both here and around the world.