[Talk-GB] Natural England Data

sk53.osm sk53.osm at gmail.com
Wed May 1 20:50:01 UTC 2013


The license terms seem fairly straightforward despite them adding Natural
England in front of the name of each license. Virtually all the data of
interest has been compiled from OSGB data (not maps, but probably using
vector data) and therefore under current terms is released under the OSGB
OpenData license (just as for StreetView, VectorDistrict etc).

This data has been available on NC & personal use terms for some
considerable time. I make extensive use of it for various purposes.
However, I have been reluctant to consider importing it into OSM, even to
refine the boundaries of things like Local Nature Reserves where I know OSM
data is wanting.

I would think most woodlands (ancient or otherwise) will have been mapped
from other sources (survey, aerial photos, OS StreetView) if people have an
interest in that kind of thing. The special categories of habitat are
useful if and only if we agree on ways to map landuse/landcover/vegetation
etc in such a way that the quality of this data is not degraded by other
mappers. At the moment I am entirely happy to use this data outside OSM.
Like many other such datasets it may best be used to create a suitable
tiled underlay which could be used to assist mapping rather than just
importing data.

It is also worth considering how up-to-date some of the habitat data is
likely to be. I know that the large habitat survey done by the Countryside
Commission for Wales has not been maintained and it's quite likely that a
certain amount of good habitat has been lost. Given the huge number of job
cuts in Natural England and the fact it is run by accountants now, I doubt
if this data is going to get better. Boundaries (SSSIs, LNRs etc) are
likely to be well maintained: at least in part because they have statutory
authority (although that does not prevent people doing things they
shouldn't on them).

A last point is that there are considerable difficulties in evolving
tagging schemes to handle some of this data.

Jerry


On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 7:41 PM, Dudley Ibbett <dudleyibbett at hotmail.com>wrote:

> Hi
>
> Am I correct in assuming we cannot use this data.  It talks about OGL but
> also mentions 3rd party and OS (again!!)
>
> http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/publications/data/
>
> The reason I ask is because whilst I can go around our neighbourhood and
> put in walls fences, woods etc I don't seem to have anyway of putting in
> ancient woods, nature reserves, sssis etc (all of which are relevant to our
> Neighbourhood Plan) without having to look at this drawn on an OS map and
> therefore not being able to use it with regard to putting these features on
> OSM.
>
> Many Thanks
>
> Dudley
>
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>
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