MasterMap Topography Layer

Overview

One of the world’s largest spatial databases

The OS MasterMap Topography layer is presented seamlessly with more than 500 Million real world objects – all uniquely identified - including roads, buildings, parks & waterways all managed and maintained by Ordnance Survey within one of the world’s largest spatial databases.

Mapping from the ground up

In a business of any kind, OS MasterMap Topography Layer gives you the confidence to make location-based decisions about assets, services, environmental risks, customers and operations.

Accurate referencing

Geo-tag your assets, with the topographic identifier (TOID) at the heart of OS MasterMap products. This makes it ideal for monitoring assets such as pipelines, pylons, bridges and warehouses.

Enhanced features

OS MasterMap Topography Layer includes enhanced features - Building Height Attribute to analyse the built environment and Sites Layer showing the main points of access to key sites.

The foundation of the OS MasterMap family

With OS MasterMap Topography Layer, each feature is a record in a database. Each of these records has information about the feature’s position and shape on Earth – its geometry – as well as details about it termed ‘attributes’.

The Topography Layer is the foundation of the OS MasterMap family. It provides an accurate visual context to help you interpret addresses, routes and imagery provided by the other layers.

How to get this product

I'm a business

You’re welcome to try out this data for free under our Data Exploration Licence or download our sample data.

Once you’re ready to use this product internally you should contact one of our Partners unless you’re in the Energy & Infrastructure sector, in which case please contact us so that we can advise you on next steps.

If you’re looking to create your own product and services, you will need to sign up to our Framework Contract (Partners) to use this product commercially or distribute it.

I'm a government organisation

Media & publishing

Case studies

Using OS data to help fix the housing market

By using OS MasterMap Topography Layer alongside real-time property data, Sprift, an OS licensed Partner have brought together all the intelligence on any property in the country in one place.

Read the full case study

Helping to safeguard moorland life

The Moor for the Future Partnership (MFFP) created a land cover map, using OS MasterMap Topography Layer in conjunction with other datasets, to get vital information to safeguard moorland life.

Read the full case study

View all case studies

Technical specification

Key Features	What this product offers
Theme	OS MasterMap Topography Layer – buildings, heritage & antiquities. \|\| Building Height Attribute - buildings.
Update frequency	OS MasterMap Topography Layer – every six weeks \|\| Building Height Attribute – every six months.
Coverage	OS MasterMap Topography Layer – Great Britain (define your own area of interest or take advantage of pre-defined areas of interest). \|\| Building Height Attribute – Great Britain.
Format	OS MasterMap Topography Layer – GML 2.1.2 \|\| Building Height Attribute – CSV

FAQs

How is this data supplied and what do I need to use it?

How can I find out if a certain type of real-world object is represented in the Topography Layer?

What are the advantages of TOIDs as a referencing system?

Each and every feature within OS MasterMap has the TOID (TOpographic IDentifier) as a unique reference. This makes it possible to identify any single feature within the dataset without any ambiguity.

Current referencing systems, such as coordinates and addresses, are subject to interpretation between users. This creates fuzzy matching issues between organisations wanting to exchange data; for example, will the building St James House be picked up in another system where it is spelt St James' House?

TOIDs will stay the same throughout the life cycle of each feature. In other words, if a feature changes, the TOID will stay the same as long as it is deemed to be the same feature; for example, a house having an extension built is still the same house and fulfils the same purpose. This provides a continuity of reference even though a feature may undergo changes.

This makes the TOID a robust referencing system that customers can use alongside, or instead of, their own referencing systems and can link to their own information about the feature.

Having unique references is essential to making the most out of storing data within a relational database management system, as these rely on unique referencing to be able to store, sort, manage, query and retrieve data efficiently.

What scale is OS MasterMap Topography Layer data?

For cartographic representation, OS MasterMap Topography Layer is captured and designed for display at 1:1250, 1:2500 and 1:10 000 scales in urban, rural and mountain/moorland areas respectively. In GIS OS MasterMap can be viewed over a considerable range of scales. The most scale-sensitive feature types, such as cartographic text and symbol features, are fixed in size and rapidly become less clear at smaller display scales (that is, when zoomed out).

OS MasterMap Topography Layer is also suitable for use in non–cartographic applications where the concept of scale is less applicable.

OS MasterMap Topography Layer