[OSM-talk] Field boundaries

[Ed Avis]

Someoneelse <lists <at> mail.atownsend.org.uk> writes:

>>In the UK, certainly large-scale Ordnance Survey maps show field boundaries.
>
>I suspect that it depends on region, but in my experience the Ordnance 
>Survey field boundary data as printed on their Explorer is based on 
>actual boundaries some considerable time in the past.

Hmm, perhaps then tracing it from out-of-copyright maps is not such a bad idea...
Although most likely the one-inch maps currently emerging from copyright do not
have the field boundaries.

>That doesn't mean 
>they don't have some other more accurate data in a format not readily 
>reproduced on a printed map - maps such as this one:
> 
>http://maps.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/
>NottsCC.InteractiveMapping.Web.Internet/
>?e=461177&n=360114&mpp=160&layers=SEA.PLA.FP.BR.RB.BOAT
>/&hLayer=&hField=&hValue=
>
>suggest that they might.

Hmm, where do you see field information on that?

>In areas where there's complete public access (Open Access Land)

Ah yes, Open Access...
<http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/enjoying/places/openaccess/>
lets you see these areas superimposed on OS maps, but I didn't see a
place to download the whole data set.  Has anyone asked?

As for adding field boundaries by doing ground surveys, I think this is
too impossibly enormous a task, even for enthusiastic OSM mappers.  Perhaps
we could install GPS devices on every tractor in the country and over a couple
of years record ploughing patterns, which would let you deduce the shape of
arable fields...

-- 
Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com>