Now that I’ve got my base Linux installation up and running, and installed the central PostgreSQL database, I need to download some OpenData to process. As I mentioned in my first post my main interest is in GIS and cartography so I’m going to use the datasets released by the Ordnance Survey under their OpenData program.
The Ordnance Survey (or OS) created the OpenData program to release and manage a number of different data sets under a free licence. This process was initiated by the Brown Labour Government who initiated a consultation process to determine what the impact of freeing up different OS datasets would be.
The datasets that are currently available are:
- MiniScale a small scale raster dataset.
- 1:250000 Scale Colour raster dataset.
- OS Street View a 1:10000 scale street level digital colour raster dataset.
- Boundary Lines a vector dataset of local government administrative boundaries.
- Code Point Open a postcode to location reference in CSV format.
- 1:50000 Scale Gazetteer in colon separated ASCII text format.
- Strategi a small scale vector dataset companion to the 1:250000 raster dataset.
- Meridian 2 a mid-scale vector dataset focusing on topography and communications.
- OS Locator a gazetteer of road names in colon separated ASCII text format.
- Land-Form PANORAMA a vector and grid dataset of contours and spot heights.
- OS VectorMap District a larger scale dataset available as both raster and vector.
I’ve decided to start out by looking at the Strategi vector dataset. To download the data:
- Go to the OS OpenData Supply page
- Scroll down to the Strategi dataset
- Select the format as ESRI Shape
- Tick the right hand box for download (unless you want a CD)
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click next
- Fill in the form as appropriate and click continue
A few minutes later I got an email in my in box with a link that is valid for three days to allow me to download a zip file of my data.
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