Revision and Update of Ordnance Survey products
Ordnance Survey revision policy
Ordnance Survey have created and continue to maintain the National Topographic Database. This Database is their record of the topographic features in Great Britain at any time. All of their map and data products are derived from this database. Ordnance Survey revise the database to reflect changes in the real world, and in doing so apply a series of priorities. For these priorities, Ordnance Survey categorise change into 4 different categories. The table below describe these categories.
Ordnance Survey data categories and their revision
| |
What it includes |
OS revision policy |
| Category 1 |
- housing and associated features
- commercial, industrial, community and public buildings and associated features
- communications (roads, railways, airports, transmission lines) and associated features
- distinctive names
|
Technique
- continuous revision in urban, rural and moorland areas
Frequency
|
| Category 2 |
No longer used |
| Category 3 |
- agricultural and horticultural buildings
- quarries and other surface workings
- field boundaries
- water features
- forestry and other vegetation
- tracks and paths
- other rural features
|
Technique
- cyclic revision in rural and moorland areas.
Frequency
- revision period 5 years in rural areas and 10 years in moorland areas.
- not currently programmed for revision in urban areas.
|
| Category 4 |
- private garages
- extensions and other minor alterations to buildings and features in Category 1
- telephone call boxes, letter boxes
- mean high water, mean low water
|
Frequency
- not currently programmed for revision in urban, rural, or moorland areas except where affected by changes to features in Categories 1 and 3
|
| Category 5 |
- archaeological information
- changes to contours in Land-Form PROFILE height products
|
Frequency
- archaeological change in urban, rural and moorland areas is incorporated according to a national programme agreed with English Heritage.
- changes to Land-Form PROFILE contours revised at the same time as associated features.
|
Continuous revision
Continuous revision is the process currently applied in urban, rural and moorland areas to capture major changes (Category 1) in the landscape such as large housing developments, commercial developments and major road and railway construction. Continuous revision is applied equally to new construction and demolition. Changes are captured within six months of building completion or demolition. These changes are captured using either ground or aerial survey methods or a combination of both.
Cyclic revision
Cyclic revision is the process of sweeping through rural areas over a five year period and moorland areas over a ten year period, to capture general revision information in Category 3. Major changes to the landscape in these areas (Category 1) that occur between revision cycles are captured by continuous revision.
Supply of updates to Digimap
The Ordnance Survey products within Digimap are updated as listed in the table below. The Land-Form PANORAMA™ product is a snapshot product, and the Ordnance Survey do not update it. If this changes, we anticipate that updated editions of these products will be available through Digimap
|
Updates of OS products from Digimap
| Ordnance Survey product |
Roam View |
Frequency of update |
Date of creation of data currently within Digimap |
| Land-Line.Plus® |
n/a |
No longer updated |
No longer available |
| OS MasterMap® Topography |
Detailed and Plan |
Annual |
December 2011 |
| OS MasterMap® Topography and ITN in Data Download |
n/a |
Bi-annual |
December 2011 |
| Meridian™2 |
District |
Annual |
January 2012 |
| Land-Form PANORAMA® |
District |
not updated |
November 1993 |
| Land-Form PROFILE® |
n/a |
Infrequent |
November 2009 |
| 1:50,000 Colour Raster |
Local |
Annual |
May 2012 |
| 1:25,000 Colour Raster |
Neighbourhood |
Annual |
May 2012 |
| 1:10,000 Colour Raster |
Street |
Annual |
June 2011 |
| 1:250,000 Colour Raster |
n/a |
Annual |
May 2012 |
| MiniScale |
County, Regional and National |
Annual |
January 2012 |
| Strategi® |
Metropolitan and City |
Annual |
January 2012 |
| 1:50,000 Scale Gazetteer |
n/a |
Annual |
May 2012 |
| Code-Point® with Polygons |
Postcode Query |
Annual |
May 2011 |
| Boundary-Line™ |
n/a |
Annual |
May 2011 |
| OS VectorMap™ Local |
n/a |
Annual |
April 2012 |
| OS VectorMap™ District |
n/a |
Annual |
March 2011 |
| OS Street View® |
n/a |
Annual |
May 2012 |
| OS Locator™ |
n/a |
Annual |
November 2011 |
