[OSM-talk] Administrative boundaries (UK)

[Peter Miller]

> From: Shaun McDonald <shaun at shaunmcdonald.me.uk>
> Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Administrative boundaries (UK)
> To: Bob Hawkins <bobhawkins at waitrose.com>
> Cc: talk at openstreetmap.org
> Message-ID: <48B2D302.9000503 at shaunmcdonald.me.uk>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Hi Bob,
> 
> Use the information on the ground. You will usually find signs welcoming
> you to the new area. It may be a few hundred metres either side, so look
> for the change in tar quality. You may also find that bin mapping is an
> option since the council often puts their name on the bins. (In Ireland
> you need to do bin mapping to get the names of the streets, rather than
> the boundaries).

Old (NPE) OS mapping is good. I was amazed to find how little of the county
boundary had changed in the past 50 years. I would use local knowledge and a
variety of current (possibly copyright) sources to see if the old OS maps
were still current and then digitise off the old maps. For my county the
majority of the boundary was along rivers anyway (which I also entered from
old OS (NPE) maps.

The borough boundary however defeated me; It has changed considerably and
for the majority doesn't follow any recognisable features on the ground so I
don't have any usable source for that at the moment and have left it alone.

It is possible that where it is not clear that it doesn't really matter much
anyway (certainly not 200 meters either way), and that where it is in urban
areas one should be able to get it on or between the appropriate roads. I
might return to the borough boundary some time and have another go. I might
ask a borough councillor to draw the boundary on my paper map and then
transcribe it.


Regards,



Peter

> 
> Shaun
> 
> Bob Hawkins wrote:
> > I wonder from where most people obtain their administrative boundaries
> > to digitise for OSM?  The most prevalent source is Ordnance Survey,
> > but that current data is copyrighted, of course.  I am particularly
> > interested in civil parish boundaries, then in local authority
> > boundaries to build up areas of interest and coverage.  Can anyone help?
> >
> > With regards,
> >
> > Bob Hawkins
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------