Public Geodata for the UK

LINKS TO UK GEO-SPATIAL DATA

The following links are to sources of geo-spatial data and is intended for the use of researchers who cannot afford to buy expensive datasets. Hence, all the datasets are either free or cost under £50.00. Whilst we have included low cost data, it is not our intention to advertise or support companies selling commercial data. Please note the specific licensing restrictions to the data, as specified. In general the data is for non-commercial use only. All data down-loaded and used from these sites are done so at the user's own risk. Some of this data may need to be re-projected to a different projection system or converted into a different format. Should you see a link to data which you think should not be included on this list please contact the Moderator immediately and please report any broken links to the Moderator. Please feel free to add a link to any legitimate geo-spatial data you feel our members may be interested in (using the standard format), all links will be checked by the Moderator (Bill Wilcox).

ORDNANCE SURVEY OPEN DATA

Source - MiniScale®, 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster, OS Street View®, Boundary-Line™, Code-Point Open®, 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer, Strategi®, Meridian™ 2, OS Locator™, Land-Form PANORAMA®, OS VectorMap® District (vector), OS VectorMap® District (raster)

Formats - vary, ESRI shapefile and Mapinfo tab file for vector, CSV, Tiff for Raster

License - http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/docs/licences/os-opendata-licence.pdf

Cost - free

Comments - requires registration, or get from the cache at http://parlvid.mysociety.org:81/os/ without registering

Link - http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/os-opendata.html

BOUNDARY DATA

Source – Blue Marble Geographics.

Data – World map boundaries (including UK) with some country data.

Format - ESRI and MapInfo formats.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Requires registration.

Link - http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/worldmapdata.php

Source – Berkeley University.

Data – World map boundaries (including the UK with county boundaries).

Format - ESRI formats.

Licence – Creative Commons Licence (see website for details).

Cost – Free.

Comments – Large file!

Link – http://biogeo.berkeley.edu/

Source – GeoDan.

Data – European boundaries and postcodes.

Format - ESRI and MapInfo formats.

Licence - Not for use in an interactive GIS environment or for commercial use (see website).

Cost – Free (see website).

Comments –

Link – http://www.geodan.com

MAP DATA

Source – Open Streetmap.

Data – World mapping map boundaries (including UK) with some country data.

Format - JPG and other formats.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Free.

Comments –

Link - http://www.openstreetmap.org

Source – Berkeley University.

Data – Various, including UK rivers, roads, rail, etc.

Format - ESRI formats.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Free.

Comments –

Link - http://biogeo.berkeley.edu/bgm/gdata.php

Source – GEOfabrik.

Data – Open Streetmap in shape file format.

Format - ESRI formats.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Free.

Comments –

Link - http://geofabrik.de/data/download.html

SOILS AND GEOLOGY

Source - British Geological Survey.

Data – 1: 625 00 scale UK Bedrock and Superficial geology datasets.

Format - ESRI and MapInfo formats.

Licence - Personal, teaching, academic and non-commercial purposes.

Cost – Free.

Comments –

Link - http://www.bgs.ac.uk/products/digitalmaps/data_625k.html

Source - European Soil Portal.

Data – 1: 1 000 00 scale European soils data (including erosion data, etc).

Format - ESRI formats and other.

Licence - Non-commercial purposes (see website).

Cost – Free.

Comments – Registration required. Other soil maps and soil data.

Link - http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

DIGITAL ELEVATON MODELS

Source – Scottish Mountaineering Club.

Data – Image files of UK contours (originally for hand-held GPS units).

Format – Zipped geo-referenced image files.

Licence – For non-commercial use.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Some work required to convert these files into a more ‘regular' format.

Link – http://www.smc.org.uk/ContourMaps.htm

Source – Geomantics Data Services.

Data – UK DEM based on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000.

Format – 16bit RAW images.

Licence – Single user licence (see website).

Cost – £15.00 for large region of UK (six regions cover UK and Ireland).

Comments – Approximately 90 x 50m resolution but can be resampled to 50 x 50m.

Link - http://www.srtm.co.uk/faq.htm

Source – Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR).

Data – World DEM based on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000.

Format – TIF file.

Licence – Single user licence non-commercial use (see website).

Cost – Free.

Comments – 90 x 90m resolution.

Link - http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/

ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

Source – Berkeley University.

Data – World Environmental data – min & max temperature, precipitation and altitude (including the UK).

Format - ESRI Raster format to a resolution of approximately 1Km.

Licence – Creative Commons Licence (see website).

Cost – Free.

Comments – Large files!

Link – http://biogeo.berkeley.edu/

Source – European Commission Joint Research Centre.

Data – European river and river basin data (including the UK).

Format – MapInfo formats.

Licence – For non-commercial use.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Registration required.

Link – http://desert.jrc.ec.europa.eu/action/php/index.php?action=view&id=24

Source – Natural England.

Data – UK environmental data – Ancient Woodland, National Nature Reserves, Ramsar sites.

Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Blanket Bog, Coastal & Floodplain Grazing Marsh, Coastal Sand Dunes, Coastal Vegetated Shingle. Fens, Lowland Beech and Yew Woodland, Lowland Calcareous Grassland. Lowland Dry Acid Grassland, Lowland Heathland, Lowland Mixed Deciduous Woodland. Lowland Meadows, Lowland Raised Bogs, Maritime Cliff and Slope, Mudflats, Purple Moor Grass Rush Pastures. Reedbeds, Saline Lagoons, Upland Calcareous Grassland, Undetermined Grassland, Upland Heathland. Upland Hay Meadow, Upland Mixed Ashwoods, Upland Oakwoods, Undetermined Woodland. Wet Woodland, Local Nature Reserve.

Format - ESRI and MapInfo datasets.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Registration required.

Link – http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/default.htm

PLACENAME GAZATTEER

Source – GeoNames.

Data – World place name data (including the UK).

Format – Data tables.

Licence – Creative Commons Licence (see website).

Cost – Free.

Comments – Download place names data table by country (GB) then convert latitude and longitude to UK map reference (using MS Excel).

Link – http://www.geonames.org/

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Source – Archaeology UK ARCHI home.

Data – Seamless UK county aerial photographs on a CD ROM.

Format – CD ROM.

Licence - Unrestricted.

Cost – £19.90 per county.

Comments – Resolution not given.

Link - http://www.digital-documents.co.uk/archi/aerial_cd.htm

SATELLITE IMAGES

Source – U.S.Geological Survey (Earth Resources Observation & Science Center).

Data – Global Landsat MSS, TM & ETM+ images (including the UK).

Format – Tif images.

Licence - See website.

Cost – Some image series are 'No-charge'.

Comments – Large files, requires registration.

Link - http://glovis.usgs.gov/

HISTORICAL ENVIRONMENT RECORD

Source – Archaeology UK ARCHI home.

Data – 115 000 UK archaeological sites and records.

Format – PDF records in counties.

Licence - Unrestricted.

Cost – £34.95.

Comments – Grid accuracy varies.

Link - http://www.digital-documents.co.uk/index.htm

Source – English Heritage and IHBC.

Data – Links to UK Historic Environment Records.

Format – Online records.

Licence - Terms and conditions listed on each site.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Some of these sites have online search facilities.

Link - http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway

LISTED BUILDINGS, SCHEDULED MONUMENTS, WORLD HERITAGE SITES, ETC

Source – English Heritage.

Data – UK Listed buildings point data.

Format – ESRI format.

Licence – Terms and conditions listed on the site.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Requires registration.

Link - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.4609

Source – English Heritage.

Data – UK Schedule monument data.

Format – ESRI format.

Licence - Terms and conditions listed on the site.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Requires registration.

Link - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.4609

Source – English Heritage.

Data – UK World Heritage Sites data.

Format – ESRI format.

Licence - Terms and conditions listed on the site.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Requires registration.

Link - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.4609

Source – English Heritage.

Data – Images of listed buildings, etc in the UK.

Format – Images.

Licence – Terms and conditions listed on the site.

Cost – Free.

Comments –

Link - http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/

PARKS, GARDENS, ETC

Source – English Heritage.

Data – UK Registered Parks and Gardens data.

Format – ESRI format.

Licence - Terms and conditions listed on the site.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Requires registration.

Link - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.4609

REGISTERED BATTELFIELDS, PROTECTED WRECK SITES, ETC

Source – English Heritage.

Data – UK Registered Battlefields data.

Format – ESRI format.

Licence - Terms and conditions listed on the site.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Requires registration.

Link - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.4609

Source – English Heritage.

Data – UK Protected Wreck Site data.

Format – ESRI format.

Licence - Terms and conditions listed on the site.

Cost – Free.

Comments – Requires registration.

Link - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.4609

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA

Source – BAA, Oxford Archaeology and Wessex Archaeology.

Data – Archaeological data for Stansted and Heathrow Airports. Excavations by Framework Archaeology 1998 to 2004

Format – Various, including ESRI format.

Licence – Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 License (see website).

Cost – Free.

Comments –

Link - http://www.framearch.co.uk/stansted/index.html - Stansted Link - http://www.framearch.co.uk/t5/data-downloads/ - Heathrow T5

Source – Archaeological Data Service (ADS).

Data – Northamptonshire National Mapping Programme.

Format – ESRI format.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Free.

Comments – GIS data aerial photographs, etc.

Link - http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/projArch/NMP/nnmp_eh_2003/downloads.cfm

COLLECTIONS OF SPATIAL DATA

Source – Geography Network (ESRI).

Data – Various (including the UK).

Format – ESRI format.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Numerous free datasets.

Comments –

Link - http://www.geographynetwork.com

Source – (Free) GIS data index.

Data – Various (including the UK).

Format – Various.

Licence – Differs (see individual websites).

Cost – Some free datasets.

Comments –

Link - http://www.ing.unitn.it/~grass/docs/free_gis_data.html

Source – MAGIC.

Data – Numerous (UK).

Format – ESRI format.

Licence – Differs (see websites).

Cost – Free.

Comments – Registration required

Link - http://www.magic.gov.uk/datadoc/summary.asp

Source – Geo Community.

Data – Numerous countries (including the UK).

Format – E00 and various others.

Licence – See website.

Cost – Free for slower downloads.

Comments – registration required

Link - http://www.geocomm.com/catalogue/uk/datalist.html