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Customers in Focus... Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency of Great Britain. In November
last year OS launched OS MasterMap™, the definitive digital map of Great Britain.
OS MasterMap™ is an unbroken web of 400 million features stretching from Land's End
to John O'Groats. This seamless database has been developed with the help of Laser-
Scan's advanced technology.
Ordnance Survey's huge store of point and line data (Land-Line®) was held in around
230 thousand map tiles. Their task was to re-engineer this data into object form, thus
allowing areas such as buildings and fields to be identified and allocated unique
topographic identifiers (TOIDs™).
Another requirement was to offer users the ability to select not only the precise
geographical area of coverage they need but also only those themes - such as roads or
buildings - they need from the data.
Solution
Laser-Scan's object-oriented (OO) approach was ideal for the process of re-engineering
the OS data. In the OO environment each feature is stored as an active object as
opposed to a dumb set of coordinates. Objects are stored in a continuous dataset as
one of a family of object classes, rather than sitting in an artificial series of layers or
coverages. This greatly simplifies the contextual analysis needed to identify the real-
world area features, which will populate OS MasterMap™.
The new database contains around 400 million features including individual fields, lakes
and even pillarboxes; they have all been allocated TOIDs™ which will dramatically ease
the task of associating different datasets from other sources to the Ordnance Survey
base material.
Laser-Scan technology has created the ability to produce a single continuous dataset
from thousands of separate tiles, healing the breaks across the old tile boundaries, and
inferring lots of ‘missing links’, such as property lines across suburban shared front
gardens.
Users of the new OS MasterMap™ data are able to download "change-only" updates
instead of complete tiles. They will be able to request the changes when they want,
even daily, providing a dramatically more up-to-date model of the world.
The data is to be issued in GML (Geography Mark-up Language) format - the new
international standard for storing and transporting geographical information. GML was
defined by the OpenGIS consortium (OGC), for which Laser-Scan provided the primary
author, and is still involved in defining the next generation (GML 3).
Future
As the demand for continuous mapping increases, Laser-Scan is ready to deliver its
unique re-engineering services, and to help consumer organisations handle the new
world of continuous object data.
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/media/newsreleases/2001/september/master_challenge.htm
See the Agenda for more details.
Register for regular email updates - contact helenm@lsl.co.uk
Visit the Laser-Scan User Group Conference website
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