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 councilscommercial

dataproviders

institutionalaccess

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 Browsers Java 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 qualitymapping/printing (e.g. EPS)

• used by 40% of users• for users who are/become skilled

Land-Line.Plus®

• 1:10,000 - 1:1,250• 30% of national coverage

Land-FormPANORAMA™

• 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

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

Users by subject area

Arts and Humanities11%

Information Services11%

Natural Environment13%

Geography18%

Engineering and Physical Sciences

20%

Economic and Social Sciences

22%

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences

4%

Medical Sciences/Physics

1%

Users by category

Staff27%

Undergraduate49%

Postgraduate24%

• 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

Where Digimap users heard of the service

From the university library

16%

From a colleague12%

From my site representative

7%

Via the Internet3%

From a friend3%

From a poster2%

Other22%

From a lecturer35%

Monthly registrations

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New Registered Users Total Registered Users

• users generally learn of Digimapby word of mouth

• number of registered users hasdoubled in this academic year

(currently 5,000)

Archaeology Spatial relationships of prehistoric ritual monumentsArchitecture Model making and urban planningBusiness Optimising location of e-commerce distribution centresCivil Engineering Locating hydrogen plant for fueling busesEarth Sciences Tectonics and landscape evolutionEconomics Impact of road noise upon property pricesElectronics Teaching position location using mobile radioEnvironment Mgt Effect of countryside stewardship on black grouseGeography Linking weather station and road accident dataHistory The feeding of Cromwell’s New Model ArmyLaw Mapping and modelling crime in CardiffMathematics Modelling rainfall with topographical variablesMedicine Pollution monitoring for Public Health SciencesPlant Sciences Biodiversity of urban gardensSocial Policy Town centre boundaries for statistical monitoringWater Mgt Pipe bursts in water distribution systemsZoology Mapping 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

Screen mapping by product January 2000 - March 2001

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35000

Jan - Mar Apr - Jun July - Sep Oct - Dec Jan - Mar

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ap

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Landline Meridian Panorama Strategi

A

Data downloading by Ordnance Survey product

• 79,000 tiles of data downloaded• data download usage follows postgraduate / staff

activity• Land-Line data very predominant

Tiles downloaded by product: April 2000 - March 2001

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Tile

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Land-line Meridian Panorama Contours Panorama DTM Strategi

Activity per user by status January 2000 - March 2001

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Digimap Activity

Inde

x (B

ase

Sta

ff =

100

)

Site rep Staff Postgraduate Undergraduate

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 rasterLand-Form PROFILE OSCAR

Boundary-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 1:7,000 - 1:18,000

© 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 [1843-1893, 1891-1912,1904-1939, 1919-1943, 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: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap

• EDINA web site: http://edina.ac.uk

• Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

• Tel: 0131 650 3302Fax: 0131 650 3308