Tutorial – visualising data in QGIS with the RNLI
In an emergency the importance of location is critical. Knowing the precise whereabouts of an incident can be the difference between life and death.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) are the charity that saves lives at sea. Responsible for saving over 140,000 lives since their formation in 1824 they work with a dedicated team of volunteers, staff and community fundraisers. They allow us to enjoy our shorelines and water, safe in the knowledge that in an emergency they will be there to assist us.
There is a lot of data behind the lifesaving and in 2017 RNLI teamed up with ESRI to create an open data portal to help share some of this data.

Find out how to create a data visualisation like this using QGIS
Better Mapping with QGIS
We recently hosted a British Cartographic Society (BCS) event at our head office, ‘Better Mapping with QGIS’. It was a one day event that introduced the fundamentals of cartographic design and culminated in a hands-on QGIS workshop.
We were thrilled to have a packed lecture theatre and the day kicked off with Alex Kent, President of the BCS, welcoming everyone and introducing the agenda for the day. Brief presentations about open data and open source software followed before Mary Spence MBE, past president of the BCS, discussed the fundamentals of cartographic design. Mary took the audience on a tour through great maps and what makes them work, balanced against examples of poor maps and why they don’t before introducing the basic design principles that should be considered.
New simple guides for OS OpenData products
Guest post by summer intern, Jessica Fisher
Under the banner of OS OpenData are over a dozen products which vary in format, scale and design to offer the greatest flexibility and usability possible. These products are all freely downloadable from our OS website – and now there are new start-up guides to using a number of the products.

OS Open Map Local in QGIS