Digimap: first year (and a bit) report Dr Hugh Buchanan User Support Co-ordinator, EDINA Geo-data services

Who are EDINA? one of 3 JISC-funded National Data Centres for UK tertiary education part of University of Edinburgh Computer Services provide over 20 information services to UK tertiary education substantial experience in handling geospatial data UKBorders has been providing a geographic boundary data service since 1994

Datacentres HE funding councils commercial data providers institutional access EDINA - Edinburgh Data and Information Access end user Location of EDINA in UK Higher Education

What is Digimap? Digimap is a JISC-funded, web-based mapping service created & hosted by EDINA with support & training jointly with MIMAS access to Ordnance Survey map data via easy-to- use, map-based interface: –creating maps on-screen –printing high quality maps –downloading map data began as a project in 1996 in the JISC Electronic Libraries (eLib) programme

User Community Simple BrowsersJava Applet OS Data Digimap Server EDINA Digimap Available from January 2000 Data downloading tool Digimap Carto Java-enabled (image or vector graphics) Available from May 2001 All map images © Crown copyright On-screen mapping tool view/print fixed-scale maps used by all users meets needs of 60% of users for novice users/low support costs data extraction - for GIS users meets needs of 25% of users customisable high quality mapping/printing (e.g. EPS) used by 40% of users for users who are/become skilled

Land-Line.Plus ® 1:10, :1,250 30% of national coverage Land-Form PANORAMA 1:50,000 national coverage contours and DTM Meridian 1:50,000 national coverage Strategi ® 1:250,000 national coverage 1: 50,000 Place-names Gazetteer - 250,000 place-names Data available through Digimap Annual updates Annual updates from 2001 and now …...

1:50,000 Colour Raster from September 2001 national coverage of 1:50,000 raster data

How we have made the data usable... © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey

Who is using Digimap? - institutions UK Higher Education institutions 163 eligible institutions 51 institutions currently subscribe annual institutional subscription is size dependent: £1,750 to £4,750 per annum institution subscription entitles all staff and students to use service for teaching and research

Who is using Digimap? - users undergraduates are largest group 82% of users are not geographers

Supporting Digimap extensive online help and guidance institutional Site Representatives –EDINA provide extensive training –training materials available for Site Rep's use Site Reps can create Help pages specific to their institution EDINA helpdesk handles around 100 Digimap- related calls per month integration with other resources within institution

Growth in user numbers users generally learn of Digimap by word of mouth number of registered users has doubled in this academic year (currently 5,000)

ArchaeologySpatial relationships of prehistoric ritual monuments ArchitectureModel making and urban planning BusinessOptimising location of e-commerce distribution centres Civil EngineeringLocating hydrogen plant for fueling buses Earth SciencesTectonics and landscape evolution EconomicsImpact of road noise upon property prices ElectronicsTeaching position location using mobile radio Environment MgtEffect of countryside stewardship on black grouse GeographyLinking weather station and road accident data HistoryThe feeding of Cromwells New Model Army LawMapping and modelling crime in Cardiff MathematicsModelling rainfall with topographical variables MedicinePollution monitoring for Public Health Sciences Plant SciencesBiodiversity of urban gardens Social PolicyTown centre boundaries for statistical monitoring Water MgtPipe bursts in water distribution systems ZoologyMapping of water vole distributions (updated to February 2001) Some uses of OS data by Digimap users...

Case study - coastal quarry design coastal quarry feasibility design exercise Surfer software package students use Digimap data to produce 3D visualisation of the existing topography model used to show the quarry site during and after extraction students also calculate the volume of extraction, i.e. the planned capacity of the quarry © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey

Case study - positioning of early Norman castles to test reasons why early Norman castles were built in particular places examine the viewshed from the castles, that is, what can be seen from the castle also the proximity of castles to lines of communication such as roads and rivers more rigorous than has previously been done comparing groups of castles in south-eastern Midlands, Cheshire and north Wales © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey

Case study - planning impact study class practicals examining the impact of a planning proposal upon the local area supplement Digimap data with environmental, socio- economic and property valuation information, and own data collected during field visits. students write and report, and produce annotated maps to support their arguments © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey

Case study - crime pattern analysis burglary repeat victimisation a repeat doesn't have to occur at the same address criminals may build mental maps of the properties they burgle Land-Line data used to map Merseyside police recorded crime data against homogenous housing types using Mapinfo and Arcview © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey

Mapping activity 250,000 screen maps created 50,000 paper maps created mapping usage follows undergraduate activity Land-Line.Plus is numerically dominant

Data downloading by Ordnance Survey product 79,000 tiles of data downloaded data download usage follows postgraduate / staff activity Land-Line data very predominant

Activity by different user types

Future developments - Ordnance Survey data Meridian product being re-launched in 2001 –hydrology and woodlands added –additional attributes on road network –digital terrain model incorporated –annual update cycle OS sample data –previously available to academia through separate deal ( " the CHEST data " ) –wide range of products, small number of tiles –Digimap products, plus …. MiniScale, 1:50,000 raster, Boundary Line, 1:10,000 raster, Address-Point, Land-Form PROFILE, OSCAR

Additional OS products - sample coverage 1:50,000 raster ADDRESS-POINT1:10,000 raster Land-Form PROFILE OSCARBoundary-Line All images © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey MiniScale

Future developments - aerial photography more detail in later session Cities Revealed data from GeoInformation Group covers major GB cities (19,000 km²) full colour imagery, 25 cm resolution, photoscale 1:7, :18,000 © The GeoInformation Group, Cities Revealed

Future developments - Ordnance Survey County Series EDINA had hoped to add historical data to Digimap not possible in current development programme, due to technical issues EDINA will reassess this summer raster images from OS/Landmark Information Group (tiff, 300-dpi) maps in five epochs [ , , , , 1945 onwards] available at scales of 1:2,500 and 1:10,560, from the First Series through to the Fourth

Digimap infrastructure can deliver other datasets pilot service for Edinburgh University users only XYZ Edinburgh street map Cities Revealed Edinburgh data terms and conditions separately negotiated Future developments - locally licensed data © XYZ Digital Map Company Ltd 2000

Future developments - functional improvements Digimap interface is being continuously improved select map location by gazetteer search –uses gazetteer from Strategi data improved feature selection on mapping interface –select all, clear all buttons

Improved symbolisation - Strategi relief shading improved road labelling text colour differentiation Map images © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey

Improved symbolisation - Meridian use attribute values to control cartographic display road labelling roundabouts motorway junction labels trunk roads index contours Map images © Crown copyright. Ordnance Survey

Digimap Carto release date 29 May 2001 flexibility to –combine products –set map scale –set output map size and shape –locate map by coordinate or gazetteer

Development activities Digital National Framework –major OS programme to redevelop large scale database, and hence products –offers substantially greater flexibility in data use –EDINA are tracking developments and liaising closely with OS (data) and JISC (funding) geo-related projects - more later in day –geo-data browser for the HE community –geo-crosswalk –e-Map Scholar

User feedback EDINA gather user views on Digimap, and feed these back to Ordnance Survey and JISC most common data requests are for: –removal of Land-Line.Plus usage restrictions –additional data products –simplified registration processes data requirements survey –reported in later session NOW!

Digimap - keeping in touch EDINA Digimap web page: EDINA web site: Tel: Fax: