DEV Community: Charley Glynn

New data formats coming this year

Charley Glynn — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 11:16:18 +0000

The format in which you receive your data has a huge impact on the usability. Using the right format for the job brings efficiencies — helping save time and effort.

In September 2020 we carried out a survey to find out your preferred data formats. We want to thank everybody who took part, and we are pleased to report that the outcomes are now informing our future roadmap.

Throughout this year, we will be providing more of our current products as GeoPackage, Vector Tiles and GeoTIFF, increasing the options you have and bringing a new level of consistency across our portfolio. We hope you welcome this news, as it makes our data easier to access and ultimately more valuable for a wide range of users.

The story so far

We are rolling out these new data formats throughout 2021. As part of their April releases, OS Open Greenspace, OS Open Roads and OS Open Rivers were made available in Vector Tiles (MBTiles). These will work well alongside the OS Open Zoomstack Vector Tiles, a great option for web and mobile mapping which is becoming more popular amongst GIS software too. Just like our whole range of OS OpenData products, these will be easily and freely downloadable from the OS Data Hub.

Read more here about how our users have benefited from this format already.

“By handling the tedious tasks of data management and packaging the data in a ready-to-use format, I was able to focus entirely on the creative and enjoyable process of cartographic design.”

- David Heyman, Managing Director of Axis Maps

OS Open Roads

Premium data next up

We have now completed our work on new formats for OS OpenData and soon you will start to see more formats coming to our portfolio of Premium products. From October 2021, Premium data downloads will be available from the OS Data Hub for PSGA members and OS Partners, and this is when you will see the rollout begin. We’re taking a staged approach — all new formats will be available by April 2022.

You can find a list of what’s coming here.

Accessible geospatial data

A key benefit of these formats is the ability to get started quickly — they help lower the barrier to entry and remove certain data management overheads. Here are some of the main benefits of each:

Benefits of Vector Tiles

Lightweight tiles that are efficient and fast to render in your software
High resolution, beautiful mapping for all devices (web and mobile)
Seamless user experience when zooming in and out of maps Advanced features — Vector Tiles contain actual geographic data (not just images) which can be interacted with
Offline maps — store the tiles locally to take your maps offline e.g. on mobile devices
Data will be supplied in Web Mercator projection (EPSG:3857)

Benefits of GeoPackage

An increasingly utilised, open standard OGC GeoPackage The single file is easy to transfer and offers drag and drop functionality
No file size limit so lots of data can be easily accommodated — great for GB national coverage
Broadly implemented (GDAL, QGIS, R, Python, Esri and many more)
More lightweight than a real geodatabase, but just as fast as a geodatabase
Data will be supplied in British National Grid (ESPG:27700)

Benefits of GeoTIFF

Georeferencing embedded — no need for external reference files
Used a lot in the geospatial industry, especially Earth Observation
An OGC Standard — widely supported
Drag and drop into lots of compatible software

Look out for more information later in the year as we roll out more new formats for more OS products, all of which will be made available from the new OS Data Hub.

OS hackathon ideas drive EV infrastructure improvements forward

Charley Glynn — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 10:03:00 +0000

Experts and enthusiasts from start-ups, private enterprise and public sector create solutions to tackle obstacles such as where to locate public charging points in future.

Ordnance Survey’s two-day OS Map and Hack event was declared an “amazing demonstration of creativity” after collaborators worked on ways to enhance electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure in Britain.

Participants were given the task of overcoming problems such as where charge points should be developed, how to attract more non-EV owners, and how can EV infrastructure be levelled up in remote communities.

They were handed premium OS data and APIs, as well as other relevant data sources including UK wide datasets from EV routing planning and charger app WattsUp, and full support and expertise from OS’s team of GIS specialists to help with the challenge.

Four concepts were presented in front of a judging panel at the hackathon final.

The winning idea was an EV Charging Site Planner app created by Arcadis. Designed with local authorities and private developers in mind, it identifies suitable locations for installing EV charging points. The app assesses potential charging point sites, then refines and characterises any search by pinpointing red, amber and green dots on a map to show the best locations. Pulling in data from OS Maps API, OS Features API, OS Greenspace, OS MasterMap and council land registry information, it takes into account factors such as proximity to existing charge point infrastructure, driving times, land ownership, priority land without any charging points, grid supply from sub stations, amenities (likely places where people would want to leave their vehicles) and greenspaces.

Leeds was the example tested during the hackathon, with the app revealing 144 of the best potential charge point sites to be found on city council land, and a further 650 possible sites elsewhere that could be considered.

Another benefit is how the app helps users to review sites without wasting time on site visits at unsuitable locations. Information can also be shared in on-screen reports to interested stakeholders.

Arcadis Technical Director Simon Ross said: “The hackathon gave us the opportunity to expand our site planning toolset using the OS Features API to access feature-rich MasterMap data. As a result of the team’s efforts, we now have a cost-effective and fully automatable workflow that further refines site evaluations by characterising land areas based on their OS MasterMap attributes.

“Through the hackathon we’ve been able to start to bring this entire site identification process into a single application, incorporating not only site suitability and land characterisation, but also the capability for users to share preferences for new installation sites with other project stakeholders. This interactivity around the planning process will enable us to give a significantly enhanced experience to our customers and to the businesses and public that ultimately benefit from robust planning of an expanded EV charging network.

“Through the hackathon workshops and cross-team networking we’ve identified other OS datasets that can be integrated to the site planner application in the future and we look forward to continuing to work with OS to maximise the benefits their data can bring to our planning platform.”

OS API Product Manager and hackathon judge Charley Glynn said: “We were so impressed with how much data Arcadis brought together. The creativity and innovation of the idea, not only in the application, but also how tangible the positive impact will be for society, and they deserve a huge congratulations.”

Circuit Finder from the Department for Transport was an app which calculates how long a journey will take for EV owners with different needs. Users put in their start point and destination for journeys, and the app finds the best route for them according to their preferences. If someone wants to be in a comfortable place while they wait for their car to charge, they can select that, or if they want to get charged and away as quick as possible, that can be factored in too. Circuit Finder gives a map of the journey with charge points, bespoke stats related to car charging capacity, and timings for how long it will take to charge it. It uses Open Street Map, Open Source Routing Engine API and National Chargepoint Registry data.

Plonkers designed by Ofgem was a concept aimed at levelling up rural communities to help them transition towards becoming EV friendly. The prototype app focused on Thurso in Scotland and investigated where was best to plonk charge points. Using OS Maps API and OS Places API to provide household addresses, and Open Street Map data for tourists, hotels and caravan parks, it investigated households who share the same charging points and distances from the nearest charger.

Rate My Charger was a concept created by RAC Agilysis to promote the best chargers in the country. The idea for the app was to look at what real EV journeys are like and understand what kind of qualities people expect to see from public charging points. The quality of EV charging points was scored based on availability of factors (how safe people felt using them, the quality of a mobile phone signal, whether there were any public conveniences nearby, how scenic the location was, and other amenities nearby). It pulled in data from OS Open Map Local and added open data sources such as Toilet map, CodePoint and UPRN from OS for mobile signal and crime rate open data. Longer term the aim was to understand data about how long people stay at charging points based on its quality and location.

OS’s Head of Geovation Carly Morris said: “It is great to see the combined efforts of start-ups, private enterprise and the public sector, working together and to see what great things have come out of that.

“A particular highlight for a lot of the judges has been the creativity over the two days. It is an amazing breadth and variation we have seen. Of course, it has only been two days but there is potential for even more impact to come from these ideas and OS wants to work closely with them to help grow and develop these ideas through our Geovation community.”

Geospatial Commission’s Head of Policy and hackathon judge Ruth Cookman said: “Innovative uses of location data will be vital in enabling the UK’s pathway to net zero and transition to electric vehicles.

“The OS Map & Hack event demonstrated the huge potential of location data and where this impact could be realised — from optimising the location of new infrastructure to improving consumer experience. As a judge, it was impressive to see the amount teams achieved in the two days, including the creativity, complexity and range of ideas.”

ODI’s Head of Consultancy for Data Programmes and hackathon judge Lisa Allen added: “Geospatial data is core data infrastructure and is a vital component of resilient modern societies. It is as essential as roads, railways and the electricity network. Not only in Great Britain but around the world. Events like this help drive innovation, can be a catalyst for growth and build economic and social prosperity in the long run by giving a platform for novel ideas to surface.”

To learn more and explore the Data Hub, visit osdatahub.co.uk.

The OGC standards that power the OS Data Hub

Charley Glynn — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 14:37:55 +0000

The OS Data Hub makes geospatial data available in a variety of formats, including API access and file downloads. These formats include standards published by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an international consortium of more than 530 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities, driven to advance geospatial information technology at all levels of data handling, processing, sharing, and analytics.

In this post we identify and describe formats and elaborate on some of the advantages of using standards to share geospatial information.

If you are registered to the OS Map & Hack hackathon and want to extend your practical knowledge about the OGC standards supported in the OS Data Hub, you are welcome to attend the technical workshop on that event: “Accessing data using OGC Standards: a quick start guide”.

Show me the APIs!
If you navigate to the OS Data Hub API dashboard, you will see a list of the APIs which you can add to your projects.

os-apis-dashboard

The OS Features API gives you direct access to the detailed geometries and rich attribution of individual features. It is based on the OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) standard. You can call it to access vector data - e.g. buildings, roads, rivers, hospitals, playing fields, greenspaces - basically anything which is represented as a point, a line, a polygon or a combination of any of the above.

The OS Maps API serves pre-rendered raster tiles, available in different projections. It is based on the OGC Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) standard. You can call it to access raster data - e.g. OS MasterMap, Leisure map - and it lets you integrate tiled maps into your applications.

Both, WFS and WMTS, are mature and well established OGC standards. This means they have been used for a while, and its current state is the result of an extended discussion, taking into account a lot of different use cases.

Not only APIs...
Other than programmatic access, OS also makes (open) data available for manual download in the OS OpenData Downloads section. These downloads are actually free and do not require registration.

Among other formats, OS publishes data using the OGC GeoTIFF and GeoPackage formats.

GeoTIFF is an extension of the TIFF format, which allows georeferencing information (e.g.: projections, coordinate reference systems) to be embedded within a TIFF file. It can be used to exchange georeferenced imagery.

GeoPackage is a database container, which enables storing different types of spatial and non spatial data, and can be easily extended to support other use cases. Currently is based on an SQLite database, although there are plans to abstract it from a specific database in the future.

Find out how OS are rolling out more of these formats for Premium products too.

Why should I use these formats?
By using OGC formats you can tap into a number of existing implementations which are able to understand and interact with these standards, including libraries/SDKs and desktop clients.

For instance if you want to integrate a OS map into your web application, you can rely on libraries such as LeafLet or OpenLayers to pull that data with a simple call. Likewise, you can open your GeoTiff or GeoPackage files within QGIS, ArcGIS or any other application that uses the GDAL/OGR library.

Another strong argument is that if you write an application which retrieves data from the OS Data Hub using any of these formats, you could easily reuse your code to access data in a different server which also publishes data according to these standards (for instance the Esri Living Atlas).

What’s new in OGC?
The first version of the WFS standard was written almost twenty years ago. The web is a very different place from what it was back then, and practices such as the use of REST architectures, JSON encodings or OpenAPI descriptions are now mainstream among web developers. OGC is developing a new family of standards, which takes advantage of these modern web practices, to create standards which are easier to use and deploy. We will write more about these OGC APIs in another blog post, so stay tuned if you want to learn more about this newer generation of OGC standards.

MyNestBox — assessing property sites with OS APIs

Charley Glynn — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 09:26:11 +0000

Continuing our #OSDeveloper blog series, we find out more about OS Partner and Geovation member MyNestBox and how they are using OS data to enable more people to own good quality homes.

Why did MyNestBox start?

MyNestBox was set up to enable more people to own good quality homes through the democratisation of property data. They have begun this journey by supporting those who build the homes, new build developers.

New build developers are being presented with too many “opportunities” i.e., they must kiss a lot of frogs before they can progress on a correct site. Some developers will visit a site and then commission consultants, architects, and surveyors. Other developers do desktop analysis which takes 3-12 hours. The research is usually inconsistent between sites and not always very comprehensive.

MyNestBox assesses a site to find the deal breakers in 10 minutes, and outputs their findings as a professional and branded pdf report so that it can be shared and validated with directors, investors, banks and colleagues.

How did MyNestBox start?

MyNestBox report screenshot

Set up in November 2020 by Dr Henry Crosby PhD (CEO) and Adam Rogers (CTO), MyNestBox was funded by a small syndicate of Business Angels including a c-suite investor at one of the largest housing association in the UK, one of UK's biggest construction companies and a number of international tech entrepreneurs. MyNestBox was also awarded a grant under Innovate UK.

In July we released our first product, MNB Assess, so that land managers and new build developers can assess sites and identify deal breakers in 10 minutes. On average, assessing a site and reporting its findings with MNB Assess[ is 12x faster than doing the assessment inhouse.

MyNestBox has been a member of Geovation since the beginning. The Geovation network on Slack has shared some awesome insights and we have received technical and product-market fit support from the team. In addition, we also received $10k of AWS credits through their AWS activate partnership. We are forever grateful for their initial support.

What (if any) problems did you face when it came to incorporating data?

MyNestBox report screenshot

Our beta product contained open-source mapping data to provide background mapping. However, this data was not at all comprehensive and sometimes wrong. Boundaries with the land registry data would not always match up and properties were regularly missing.

OS MasterMap is a product that our customers are familiar with and typically would pay a license for. The partnership agreement we have with OS means we can access the data that our customers need as part of a reasonably priced unlimited package.

Was it easy to integrate OS data?

Accessible via the OS Data Hub, the OS data has been exceptionally easy to incorporate. As well as using the OS APIs to display the OS MasterMap Premium Layer and OS Open Zoomstack, we use the OS MasterMap shapefiles to extract specific features too.

Using this OS data, we have been able to create a professional report with accurate background data that our customers can rely on.

What does the future look like for MyNestBox?

We will be introducing more OS data such as overhead lines and substations as these datasets can act as constraints to developing on a site. We are also considering including public rights of way and registered highways for similar reasons.

Separately to OS, we are building a “site levels” map to identify costly excavation works on a new development.

Looking to find out more? Discover MyNestBox now.

Explore the OS Data Hub now and stay up to date with our #OSDeveloper content by signing up for our newsletter.

The OS Data Hub explained: when detail matters

Charley Glynn — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 11:36:26 +0000

A comprehensive look at what the OS Data Hub is and the APIs that are accessible.

Ordnance Survey, a data company?
Fundamentally, Ordnance Survey (OS) is a data company and has been capturing information about Great Britain for almost 230 years. Our original purpose was to create a map in 1801 that would help the military defend and protect the nation. Our aerial imagery techniques helped support surveyors on foot 100 years ago. In the 1940s we were providing an advisory role to international governments on mapping and surveying; and in the 1960s we were mapping government sites.

We’ve developed digital maps of Mars and even used OS OpenData to recreate a map of Great Britain in Minecraft.

Throughout its history, OS has always been at the cutting-edge of location data technology, and its capture and storage. In the early days, surveyors would go out into the wilderness to record waypoints, write them in ledgers and take them back to the office to create an archive of paper maps. However, in the last 50 years, OS has transitioned to capturing and storing this information in digital forms, and as a result, has a huge range of geospatial data about Great Britain that has been included in its data products.

What is the OS Data Hub?
The OS Data Hub is our new platform to serve trusted, authoritative data through new formats to end users. It’s focused on building new efficient ways to access OS data and is a portal for mapping, data, and/or Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

For those who are not familiar with the term, APIs are services that submit requests to servers and specify the data you want, which is then sent back to you immediately. Think of the restaurant analogy; where you submit your dinner ‘request’ to a server, who will provide this information to the kitchen, who cooks and prepares your order, and then brings your requested order to the table. APIs are essentially important middleware, and programmatically speaking, can reduce technical barriers to entry and the overheads associated with using large, complex datasets.

The OS Data Hub delivers the foundational layer to many geospatial applications. OS makes around 20,000 updates to the database every day. This trusted layer of detailed geospatial data can be pulled into many different use cases including data visualisation, geospatial analysis, and creating business insights. Even within the world of academia, OS data is helping to answer new and interesting geospatial theories.

The data is served through OS APIs in either the British National Grid or Web Mercator standards, and is interoperable with different software and mapping libraries. There are various types of online documentation including code examples where developers can copy and paste, add in their API keys, and start using OS data within minutes.

The OS Data Hub also has an error reporting tool to feedback about the data, so if you identify errors with the location information, you can report this directly to OS.

The difference between Open and Premium data
The signup process provides the technical and pricing information to choose between OS OpenData, Premium and Public Sector plan (Public Sector plan users will need to be a PSGA member).

The OS OpenData plan provides free and unlimited usage but with a data limit determined by the detail. The APIs can be used to view and integrate publicly-accessible datasets and to understand the capabilities of the data within the OS Data Hub. Users can also download the datasets to query offline.

The Premium plan provides access to premium OS datasets where the requests and transactions contain a price. The OS Data Hub provides users free premium data (API transactions) up to £1,000 per month and information around how much each transaction costs so you can estimate the cost based on your usage, to support any budgeting.

The OS Data Hub comes with a dashboard to track progress of API usage. API Projects can help you organise your keys (think of servicing different customers or different websites that you are using) and track the overall usage of the applications you are using OS data on, in more sophisticated ways. Within an API Project you can select several APIs and your key is then directly linked to them all.

OS Data Hub: the API suite
OS provides APIs in three broad categories; maps, address data, and geographic features.

OS Maps API is a raster tile service that serves maps as PNG images, which are assembled in your browser or GIS. There are two ways to access OS Maps API; Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard web map tile service (WMTS) and ZXY, meaning these maps work with almost all geospatial software and every mapping library. OS Maps API styles are designed and developed by OS cartographers with different features and visual hierarchies.

Using OS APIs for quicker updates
The OS Maps API is useful for base mapping. For example, the National Library of Scotland, which is a repository for historical maps and provides a tool where users can view historical maps and compare them against modern versions. Analysts of The National Library of Scotland originally downloaded large files of OS Maps onto local servers, which meant there could have been gaps of up to two years before updated basemaps were used in their application. Now the analysts have integrated OS Maps API that are connected to OS servers, they are using the most up to date basemaps by only having to change a couple of lines of JavaScript code.

OS Vector Tile API provides an on-demand and quick way to create maps for web and mobile users using OS cartography. The advantage is that vector features are rendered within the browser or client. This means its capable of supporting more interactivity and online experiences and its compatible with common web mapping libraries and increasingly more GIS software. The Vector Tile API is fully customisable not only for individual layers but also individual features.

The Vector Tile API is used with GeoAR.it, an augmented reality company for the environment. It uses vector tiles to create 3D extruded buildings. Every geographic feature can have metadata or attributes that hold relevant details about that feature. Within the Vector Tile API, building footprints have a feature called the building height attribute, a number that represents the height of that building. GeoAR have extruded out the polygons to recreate a 3D model as a city, using the Vector Tile API, to use in this augmented reality environment.

OS Features API is used to access the geometries and attribution of OS data. It provides rich geographic vector features in either GeoJSON or GML formats. In addition to the geospatial data (geometries), you receive a set of metadata that is connected to that feature, which are called attributes. In a GIS application, you can examine an attribute table such as address, area, postcodes etc.

The OS Features API provides many data layers, including OS MasterMap Topography Layer. The user specifies the details of the data they need; for example, results that match a building or road, or a spatial query including features that intersect a property. The OS Features API removes overhead of managing and storing the data locally.

Achieve detailed location analysis without surveying
Start-up Balkerne uses OS Features API to conduct location intelligence risk analytics for customers. The data provided via the API helps Balkerne achieve an advanced understanding of which areas of their properties are at risk of natural disasters, such as floods or subsidence. They can perform this location risk analysis, without having to send out surveyors of their own to inspect a given area.

OS Linked Identifiers API
Across OS and UK government, a number of geospatial databases store data for several purposes, such as UK highways and Land Registry. Each of these databases require a unique ID to look up the correct data using analytical processes. The community and Government have agreed on providing unique reference numbers that can be attached to a property, street, or topographic feature through its lifecycle. These include the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) and OS also provides the Topographic identifier (TOID).

The Linked Identifiers API enables correlation between all these reference points.

OS has individual features associated with their datasets. However, within the Land Registry database, they may have one UPRN that is associated with a single structure. The Linked Identifiers API allows you to query a UPRN and it will correlate and send back all the TOIDs connected to that UPRN. There is no geospatial data returned by the Linked Identifiers API, but it is a way to link between several different database that use multiple reference systems.

OS Names API is a free-to-use searchable database to help the user find and verify populated places, cities, roads, and postcodes within Great Britain. To find ‘Southampton’ from the API perspective, when sending a request with the string of ‘Southampton’, it will pull out searches related to that request. Information will include where the location is, its size, and the map view will zoom directly to that location. The OS Names API enables forward and reverse geocoding, and links diverse information such as a statistics or descriptions to locations.

OS Downloads API automates the discovery and download of OS OpenData. It enables users to work with bigger datasets, even within the capability of hosting them on their own servers, or to do some country-scale analytics. Users are able to request various coverage areas, metadata, and data format depending on the dataset. From October 2021, it will also include OS premium datasets including OS MasterMap Topography Layer and AddressBase Premium.

OS Places API and OS Match & Cleanse API are address APIs and contain AddressBase Premium data. Users can use these APIs for forward and reverse geocoding of detailed address data, which includes a UPRN for linking and sharing. The GeoSearch function allows the user to search for addresses using bounding box, radius, and polygon queries. Both address APIs can save the user time, ensure they capture the correct address details at source, and help minimise errors in their own databases.

Accessing the OS Data Hub
Any developers, data scientists, or GIS users can access the OS Data Hub using standard protocols for accessing information over the internet and using the standard format for requesting and retrieving data.

For web developers, connect with libraries such as Leaflet, OpenLayers, Mapbox GL JS and ArcGIS for JavaScript. All libraries have, native to their functionality, ways to connect to the OS Data Hub in several standard data formats.

For data scientists, use Python and R libraries, including Geopandas and Jupyter Notebook for fetching data over an http request. This is more around structuring those requests so they comply with how the OS Data Hub APIs are expecting to receive the request and will send the data back.

GIS analysts can use OS APIs to pull the basemaps into their workflows and connect to rich geospatial features directly, along with attribution, for the areas you want to analyse. It’s about using the right data, as and when you need it.

Most trends in software development are due to their ability to do something easier, cheaper, and/or more efficiently. The OS Data Hub encompasses 230 years of mapping and geospatial expertise; it has undertaken and managed the technical GIS burden, in addition to the heritage associated with OS, to allow the developer to use and manage geospatial data through simple and easy-to-access APIs.

For more information visit osdatahub.co.uk.

OS Hackathon: What is the open-innovation challenge?

Charley Glynn — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:08:35 +0000

In a recent series of blog posts, we’ve explored how the OS Map & Hack challenges aim to solve problems within sustainability and transportation on a national, organisational, and individual level.

The fourth and final challenge is one of ‘open-innovation.’ As the name suggests, the challenge allows limitless scope and creativity. It’s intended for those who may be new to the developer headspace, and/or have an amazing new idea in mind and a desire to build on that concept, and maybe, even help others explore ideas of their own.

The issue of sustainability is one that will affect us all; indeed, sudden and severe changes in the planet’s weather and climate is already having an effect. We reach a moment in time where differences need to be put aside in order to problem-solve something much bigger than ourselves for the greater good.

Can this ever be achieved? Does it seem too good to be true?

It will take a combined effort of all; and fortunately, the changes required to achieve these goals may already be in motion. The technology is there, we just need to work together to put the most effective solutions in place.

Technological innovation is in an exponential growth phase, across different areas and almost every industry. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, next-generation connectivity, autonomous tech and robotics – once the science-fiction dreams that were years away, and now already part of our everyday lives. And they continue to enhance it. It could be with these technologies, forging a disruptive path of innovation, that we find some of the solutions to reaching our sustainability targets.

For example, robotics is key within the manufacturing sector for producing infrastructure and vehicles at an increased pace. Applied with machine learning, it can also identify the quickest and most sustainable methods to the development process.

The deployment of the 5G infrastructure changes the way we communicate and approach data across the world – this could also provide and share real-time data related to the way we manage our energy storage and consumption. It could also be used for gathering real-time information for charging networks and EV routing.

What these technologies need are the new ideas and methods to put them into action, and make the most out of them. Iterative engineering methods and rapid prototyping are examples of developers and data scientists changing the game. They build on existing concepts and architectures that, coupled with the tools and communities to support, can move at a rate never seen before.

Geospatial data is a key contributor to solving sustainability issues, and it becomes an essential piece of the puzzle for analysis and modelling, but to also scale the production and deployment. Particularly in diverse landscapes such as Great Britain.

If you are interested in getting into this space, or collaborating with other great minds, OS Map & Hack provides a great opportunity to do so. For more information and registration, visit our Hackathon page.

Embed OS Maps easily into your WordPress site

Charley Glynn — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 10:25:43 +0000

With the withdrawal of OS OpenSpace taking place on 31 August 2021, the OS Data Hub and our new suite of location data APIs is the start of a new era for OS data access. Since launching the platform last summer, we have had over 10,000 users sign up. Many of these were using our previous APIs and are now benefitting from new features since migrating.

In this guest blog we are highlighting an excellent open-source project, the OS Data Hub Maps plugin for WordPress from Simon Large of Skirrid Systems. It offers access to our highly detailed maps (via the OS Maps API) and allows anyone to include OS Maps on their own WordPress website or blog. It offers a fantastic migration path for OS OpenSpace users.

As Skirrid Systems’ founder, Simon tells us more...

About the plugin
This plugin takes over where the previous plugin, OS OpenSpace Maps, left off. Ordnance Survey will be switching off the OS OpenSpace server having brought online the new OS Data Hub and its suite of APIs. The good news is that the OS Data Hub service is superior in every way. You now have access to the full 1:25,000 Explorer mapping as well as the 1:50,000 Landranger series. And the free allowances are a lot more generous, offering typically 2,000,000 map views per month.

WordPress plugin screenshot

The plugin has been rewritten too and now uses Leaflet.js to display the maps, giving a cleaner interface and a much more responsive feel. Other goodies include full screen view, colour markers and elevation profiles, one of our most requested features. The new plugin aims to take over seamlessly from the old one, allowing all your existing pages to display the same maps with minimal changes.

Some of the new features include:

*Full screen viewing option
*Elevation profiles from GPX data
*Better touch and mouse wheel support (similar to Google Maps)
*Ability to use both routes and markers on the same map
*Nine different marker colours available
*Option to restrict premium maps to logged-in users

Other feature enhancements are also planned to make the plugin more useful for users such as local authorities who can use it to share maps of their local boundaries.

Five-star reviews
The plugin has so far received seven 5-star reviews and some very positive comments:

“Absolutely marvelous! Clear documentation and works just as it says.”

“Thanks for an excellent plugin, Simon, and also for making the migration from OS OpenSource Maps a breeze...The new plugin and the new OS Data Hub API make for a clear improvement on the previous OpenSpace combo, and I thought that was good!”

“The plugin is really simple to use and it's great to have OS Maps embedded in your WordPress site. Most importantly, the plugin is really well supported and updated regularly.”

If you have a WordPress site, check out the plugin and discover more information via Skirrid Systems about how to easily integrate detailed OS mapping into your pages.

Explore the OS Data Hub now and stay up to date with our #OSDeveloper content or by signing up for our newsletter.

OS Hackathon: Hackathon: what does the ‘real’ EV journey look like?

Charley Glynn — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 09:46:14 +0000

As OS’s first virtual hackathon, the OS Map & Hack offers attendees access to Premium geospatial data and the opportunity to explore the use of this data to drive sustainable innovation.

The hackathon offers four different challenges. Last week we looked at demand for developing charging points, this week we’re looking at consumer behaviours towards owning an Electric Vehicle (EV)…

In a recent blog post, we considered the impact of implementing electric vehicle infrastructure. There are potential knock-on effects on residential planning and developing on greenspaces. But this is still only part of the adjustment process to a life with electric vehicles.

Consider also, the change to the way in which cars are ‘refuelled.’ There are currently more than 8,300 petrol filling stations across Great Britain. We can refuel our vehicles with petrol or diesel, then continue our journey to work or go on holiday, without losing too much time.

With electric vehicles, however, the waiting period can be much longer. To fill a car battery can take at least eight hours; a top-up charge mid-journey can still require a good 20 to 30 minutes. Service stations and supermarkets are being altered built with this efficiency in mind and supplied with ‘rapid charging’ points, but even so, this necessary change to behaviour could affect adoption rates of electric vehicles.

Stopping for fuel is a standard element to car ownership, engrained into us from the very beginning when we learn to drive. Adjusting from refuels taking a few minutes, to almost half an hour, is a new concern that drivers haven’t needed to consider before. And while there are deadlines in place, to halt the sale of petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles, some drivers may consider that infrastructure for electric vehicles still isn’t ready yet.

Some think that early adopters of electric vehicles do not necessarily reflect the habits of the ‘everyday user’. For example, if you happen to live in a block of flats, or have no designated parking space, it may be impossible for you to charge an EV overnight. The ownership of an EV would then require planning trips and routes round the availability of public charge points. That, understandably, may be enough to put drivers off, but even so, the cut off dates for petrol- and diesel-fuelled vehicles is coming.

The answer to this problem may well lie in geospatial data. Consulting map coverage of electric vehicle charge points, including those with slow/fast/rapid charging, and traffic conditions could help identify where Great Britain is ready for electric vehicle adoption, and where it needs further development. It may be that charging, and routing should be considered in similar ways as identifying and planning phone network coverage. Is it possible to ensure that supply can meet demand?

If you think you have the answer or would like to explore and collaborate with others on this, visit the OS Map & Hack two-day hackathon. Find out how you can use geospatial data to help affect a positive change in behaviours.

Interested? Register your place now to join the first OS Map & Hack.

Explore our developer site to learn more about how the OS Data Hub and our APIs can support you.

OS Hackathon: The growing demand for electric vehicle (EV) charge points

Charley Glynn — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 11:19:04 +0000

In case you missed it, we recently launched the OS Map & Hack. As OS’s first virtual hackathon, we’ll be exploring the use of geospatial data to drive sustainable innovation.

From supporting local governments to influencing consumer behaviour, the hackathon offers four different challenges. Last week we looked at EV infrastructure planning to support local governments, this week we’re looking into the demand for charge points…

As electric vehicle (EV) adoption becomes more widespread, so does the requirement for EV charge points, and new solutions in off-road charging. Businesses are already adopting electric vehicle fleets with a sufficient infrastructure. And with impending governmental deadlines, the adoption of an electric vehicle becomes a necessity to anyone needing a car or van of their own.

Ideally, the transition from combustion engines to battery power needs to be as seamless as possible. Drivers will want to be assured that their vehicle can make journeys — especially usual journeys like to work, or to the shops — without additional or unexpected stops to refuel. Pulling into a service station to top up petrol, and stopping to recharge a car’s battery, will have significant differences in terms of duration.

It is expected that most people will use overnight charging to achieve maximum range (a typical electric car 60kWh battery takes just under 8 hours to charge from empty-to-full with a 7kW charging point). Battery capacity and subsequent travel range will depend on individual vehicle types, but for the majority of drivers, the overnight charge — rather than infrequent ‘top-up charging’ — will be the ideal option for regular trips, such as the weekly commute.

Is Great Britain ready for such an undertaking?

Consider how many EV charging points there are local to you, or perhaps how few of them there are. Combining the current distribution of EV charging points, and drivers with no way of charging at home — such as residents in blocks of flats, or with no designated parking — then some would need to plan their usage, if not their whole working week, around the availability of local charge points.

Before widespread adoption, the distribution of EV charging points, and especially those for overnight charging, need to be developed. However, in order to achieve this, will homeowners need to replace their front gardens, and/or will councils need to replace greenspaces to meet rising demand? While this would help benefit electric vehicle infrastructure, and therefore strengthen our sustainability within the transport sector, reducing greenspaces and agriculture in order to achieve it does seem counterproductive.

Governments also need to prepare for the impact on cityscapes and allow for requirements for local energy storage. The placement and power ratings of charge points is going to inform improvements to the UK electricity grid.

There is a fine balance to be found, between individual household charging, and maintaining access of greenspace in the community. If you have an idea on how to find that balance, or want the opportunity to collaborate with other developers, check out the OS Map & Hack two-day hackathon.

This is a crucial element of Great Britain transitioning towards widespread EV adoption. What you come up with to try and win this challenge could be just the solution we need.

Book your place now to join the first OS Map & Hack.

Learn more about how the OS Data Hub and our APIs can support you via our developer site.

OS Hackathon: Levelling up Britain's remote communities

Charley Glynn — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 10:19:19 +0000

Two weeks ago we launched the OS Map & Hack. As OS's first virtual hackathon, we'll be looking at geospatial data and how it can be used as we move towards sustainable alternatives across multiple market sectors.

Ranging from supporting local governments to influencing consumer behaviour, the hackathon offers four different challenges. Over the next week, we will be showcasing and exploring these challenges in more detail. First up, Levelling up...

Adopting electric vehicles (EVs) over petrol- and diesel-fuelled ones is a critical part of making Great Britain ‘greener,’ by helping lower carbon emissions, and work towards reaching ‘net zero.’ However, the transition to EVs cannot just happen overnight – it is not so simple as one solution suiting all requirements.

For example, in larger cities and densely populated areas, new infrastructure is usually built more rapidly, due to increased economic and social demand. This means that new technologies, such as charging points for EVs, will be implemented in less time. The transition to EVs is improved, and the shorter the timeframe, the sooner the benefits to the environment.

However, local governments of remote communities may struggle to achieve the same turnaround. They have similar budgets but often larger areas of the country to upgrade. They may also encounter additional challenges such as national heritage sites, or preservation zones, which can either delay or outright inhibit development.

But these remote communities deserve the same opportunities afforded to densely populated ones. Local governments are expected to provide vital services each day to their citizens and businesses; and there may be a high demand for EVs access within their defined areas. Not just for the residents which live and work there; but also, to benefit tourism, which in some areas can be a key source of income.

In addition, assisting these communities in providing more sustainable opportunities is not simply an exercise in global benefit. Eventually, they will need to complete this transition. The British government has already announced two key deadlines:

From 2030, sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be phased.

2035 is the intended deadline to see all new cars and vans achieve zero emission at the tailpipe.

With less than a decade to go before freezing the sales of petrol and diesel vehicles, all communities need to accelerate their electric vehicle transition. How can these local governments plan, measure, and – where possible – speed up the transition to electric vehicles, in lightly populated areas with a high tourist appeal?

The path to creating and implementing sustainable solutions requires innovation and out-of-the-box thinking; and sometimes, it takes the right opportunity to get ideas in motion. If you have an idea on how to approach this problem, or want to help others to solve it, the OS Map & Hack two-day hackathon provides a great opportunity.

There’s still some distance to go with transition over to EVs. It could be you/your team’s ideas, which makes a difference.

Register your place now to join the first OS Map & Hack.

Discover our Developer site to learn more about how the OS Data Hub and our APIs can support you.

OS data and services support NHS Digital in distribution of millions of Covid-19 home testing

Charley Glynn — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 11:16:23 +0000

Not long after the coronavirus pandemic began, NHS Digital contacted OS for support in their delivery of Covid-19 home testing kits as part of the government’s national testing strategy.

With a national demand for testing kits, NHS Digital required trusted and accurate addressing data to support their operations. Using the OS Places API, NHS Digital has been able to efficiently capture the addresses of people requesting kits via the Gov.uk website.

Through the membership of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) sponsored by the Geospatial Commission, NHS Digital were able to have free at the point of use access to the OS Places API feature ‘Capture and Verification’, which they were quickly able to integrate with their current online ordering systems. This meant that when someone with potential Covid-19 symptoms needed to order a home testing kit, our addressing data enabled them to enter a postcode and easily select their address from a drop-down list.

This function ensures only ‘clean’ and up-to-date addresses are captured, allowing for efficient delivery of tests to anywhere in Great Britain, especially during periods of high demands. As well as reassuring NHS Digital that kits are being delivered correctly, introducing this API has crucially sped up the online user journey and removed the need for manual address entries which can result in less successful deliveries.

The addressing data is also shared with delivery operators relied upon to deliver these test kits.

NHS Digital is currently the biggest user of the OS Places API and, at its peak, this API was being used to capture and verify over one million addresses each day. Of these, over half of the requests were made via NHS Digital's Covid-19 Home Testing channel that enables members of the public to order lateral flow tests online.

Following the schools reopening in early March and with the wider access of Covid-19 testing to all adults in England OS Places continued to support the increase in demand and distribution for free rapid lateral flow tests across the nation.

OS Places API

OS Places API - Capture and Vertification

OS Places provides a simple way to access the current and accurate addresses in AddressBase Premium for GB without overhead of manging addressing data.

OS Places API is a trusted service used by government and businesses to transact with citizens and register for services. The Capture and Verification and Geosearch functions are now free to use - find out more.

Learn more about the OS Data Hub on our blog and discover our APIs now. Find out more about the Geospatial Commission and the UK Geospatial Strategy.

Removing the data management burden with the OS Features API

Charley Glynn — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 10:01:55 +0000

The OS Features API is a genuine time saver. It allows you to connect directly to the data you need, as and when you need it, removing the overheads of managing and storing data locally. It gives you access to the rich geometries and attribution of OS data for visualisation or analysis, helping you/your users generate new location-insight.

OS MasterMap Water Network Layer

Buildings, roads, rivers, hospitals, playing fields, contours and much more. There are lots of data layers available in the OS Features API. From details building footprints to generalised road networks, filter and select the right data for your analysis. The OS Features API is based on an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard, which means it’s ready to use in lots of web and desktop software including QGIS, Cadcorp, ESRI, OpenLayers and Leaflet.

Geovation start-up Balkerne uses OS Features API to conduct location intelligence risk analytics for customers, who then provide an advanced understanding what areas of their property may get flooded.

“Prior to the OS Data Hub, developers spent hours hosting OS Topographic layer data at a very high cost to obtain simple features on the map. Developers can exploit the wealth of OS datasets through easy, cost-effective APIs that are built to scale with their businesses.” — Harish Pesala, co-founder of Balkerne.

We have online resources to help you get started quickly with our APIs. You can copy and paste these code examples to create building blocks and then follow our tutorials to create fully functioned applications. From finding nearest greenspaces to calculating how much of an area is built on, OS Features API can accelerate your time-to-value by connecting detailed geospatial data directly into your workflows.

If you’re looking to use OS Features API in a desktop GIS, we have Getting Started Guides available too. Data scientists may prefer to connect via our handy Python Wrapper.

Ready to discover the OS Data Hub? Get started now.

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