EDINA newsline
September 2007: Volume 12 Issue 3
OS MasterMap data is delivered in a very different way from the other Ordnance Survey data products available through Digimap.
For datasets such as Strategi® or Meridian™, Digimap simply delivers files as they were sent from Ordnance Survey.
There is no further processing of the data done by EDINA; it is unchanged from Ordnance Survey’s version.
However, OS MasterMap cannot be delivered in this way since it is a seamless, rather than a file-based, dataset.
The challenge presented by OS MasterMap was to design and implement an efficient and scalable data publication mechanism that delivered data which replicated the format of the data produced from Ordnance Survey’s master database.
This was necessary so that it would load into the standard GIS applications found on researchers’ desktops and public lab machines.
This is no mean feat, complicated by the volumes of data involved.
Working with third-party software companies – Snowflake Software and Oracle – EDINA has built a robust, scalable, fault-tolerant facility for delivering OS MasterMap data as Geography Mark-up Language (GML).