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SpatialNews.com Press Release
Smart numbers add up to free deal for data
customers -
Unique building codes
herald dawn of digital
map revolution
National mapping agency Ordnance Survey is
offering its data customers a free taste of the future
with the launch of a digital index of all Britain's 40
million buildings.
The Ordnance Survey National Buildings Dataset (NBDS) is
trailblazing a host of benefits for emergency services, housing
associations, utilities, insurers, and property management firms.
Every building, even those without a postal address, has been
given a unique 16-digit code known as a topographic identifier
(TOID). Customers can use these as digital 'hooks' on which to
'hang' and associate whatever information they want.
"TOIDs are expected to open up unprecedented opportunities in
the accuracy and ease of data exchange between organisations,
both public and private," says Vanessa Lawrence, Ordnance
Survey's Director-General and Chief Executive. "They will help
create intelligent databases for use in planning, management,
marketing and related services."
The NBDS, unveiled on the eve of the prestigious GIS 2000
exhibition at London's Earls Court, is the first dataset directly
linked to Ordnance Survey's new object-based reference
framework, the Digital National Framework (DNF), currently
under development. In time, the DNF will extend the use of
TOIDs from buildings to all mapping features, including individual
fields, areas of road, and even garden plots.
A year's free trial of the NBDS is being offered to customers of
large-scale Land-Line data and ADDRESS-POINT, allowing
them a head start in preparing systems for the type of future
products and services that will be available from Ordnance
Survey under the DNF. Updates highlighting changes to the
dataset will be available on a quarterly basis.
Around 15 million buildings in Britain do not have specific postal
addresses. They include electricity sub-stations, rural barns,
sports ground changing facilities, public toilets, industrial buildings
which are part of a larger complex, gas and oil holders, and
non-residential windmills or lighthouses.
TOIDs will dramatically ease the task of managing them, says
Ms Lawrence. "While their positions can be pinpointed
accurately on maps using the National Grid or co-ordinates from
the satellite-based Global Positioning System, extra computer
information cannot easily be attached to existing mapping data.
"Private sector companies and public bodies are increasingly
using computer-based geographical information systems to
integrate and analyse data from many sources, so the enhanced
flexibility provided by giving unique identifiers to every building -
and later to every piece of land - is likely to provide a major
boost to such work."
TOIDs within the NBDS can be used for any building-related
application, including statistical analysis, asset management,
command and control, air and noise pollution analysis,
subsidence and flood risk assessment, and planning.
Senior Press Officer - Philip Round
E-mail: pround@ordsvy.gov.uk
Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2635
Press Officer - Paula Good
E-mail: pgood@ordsvy.gov.uk
Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2568
Press Office Assistant - Anne Patrick
E-mail: apatrick@ordsvy.gov.uk
Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2251
Press Office fax: (+44) 023 8079 2031
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