Hi all,
Thanks Rob for that.
Chris Fleet (NLS) asked me to announce to the OSM community that the NLS is
also adding the Ordnance Survey Maps - 25 inch 2nd and later editions,
Scotland, 1892-1949, which is the most detailed topographic mapping for
all the inhabited regions of Scotland from the 1890s to the 1940s, as
described here: http://maps.nls.uk/os/25inch-2nd-and-later/index.html
At the moment, this layer currently covers selected counties in Southern
Scotland only and can be added using the following URL:
http://geo.nls.uk/mapdata3/os/25_inch/cb/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png
Jerry wrote about the MESH project (http://www.mesh.ed.ac.uk/) in which I'm
involved with Richard. Funded by the AHRC, the MESH project is about
mapping the history of Edinburgh. We compared the different solutions to
create an historical GIS and finally decided to use OSM. So since March, we
started to improve OSM in Edinburgh. You can see the results in these two
examples:
- part of New Town: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/55.95750/-3.20140
- part of Old Town: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/55.95005/-3.18792
The mapping is still in progress but we hope to have covered most of the
town before the end of October.
This being said, because it's a 3-year project, the solution to use OSM
would probably not have been possible without the historic maps digitised,
georeferenced and provided online by the NLS. It would have been too
time-consuming. Indeed because we want to map addresses, we need to map
buildings which is sometimes not easy at all in an historic town such as
Edinburgh. Using the historic maps allowed us:
- to speed up the mapping process,
- to add far more details such as walls, gardens or gates (walls and
gardens can seem secondary features but all together with buildings, it
gives an idea of the plots),
- to add some addresses using a combination of maps (OS National Grid maps
of Edinburgh (1940s-1960s) contain the house numbers but don't show where
the entrances are, contrary to the OS 1893 map, which shows the entrances
but not the house numbers) before doing the full survey (thus it saves a
lot of time on the field as it's just a matter of checking things rather
than drawing/writing on the map),
- to improve the accuracy of OSM in term of positioning, at least to be
consistent even if there is a global offset; Bing imagery contains a priori
an offset (in fact many local offsets) which can be corrected using the
features on the grounds such as letter boxes, walls, etc, elements which
are included in the historic maps.
So I take the opportunity here to thank a lot the NLS (partner of the MESH
project) and particularly Chris for their wonderful job here, as well as
the local OSM community in Edinburgh (mainly Bob, Brian, Chris, Donald,
Neil).
And Jerry, yes, you're right, we didn't put many information online yet as
we really wanted to concentrate on the core task which was and still is the
mapping. But before mid-October, we'll put for sure some material online
including maps, some articles and reports to talk about our experience
contributing and using OSM, some web applications, and probably some
surprises we are working on. Every data produced during this project will
be released as open data as we strongly believe that everyone including the
general public, local historians, scholars, academics, etc has the right to
access and play with the data and tools we will produce/develop.
Cheers,
Eric
On 11 August 2014 23:08, SK53 sk53@gmail.com wrote:
I met Richard Rodger who is leading the MESH project at Edinburgh
University. Addresses in central Edinburgh have changed so little in 200
years that they are able to use OSM to map where attorneys were located in
the middle of the 19th Century. The historical addresses were acquired from
Business Directories. And MESH is the reason why these particular maps have
been done. There is a link to the project there.
I dont think there is that much detailed information available yet, but it
looks to be shaping up to be both a fascinating project and a classic
example of how OSM data can be used for purposes very different from what
one might expect.
Jerry
On 11 August 2014 22:52, Donald Noble drno...@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks Rob,
The alignment matches well with both bing and what is already on OSM
(although this may largely be derived).
Also pleasing to note that the addresses I have surveyed match those
on the OS map - don't suppose they change all that often.
Cheers, Donald
On 10 August 2014 00:04, Rob Nickerson rob.j.nicker...@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all, particularly those folk mapping up in Scotland,
The National Library of Scotland has added the earliest editions of
Ordnance
Survey National Grid maps covering the Edinburgh environs to their
online
map offerings.
http://maps.nls.uk/additions.html#28
What's so special about these maps is that they show details right down
to
individual buildings plus their
