Le portail francophone de la géomatique

Il est toujours interessant de voir ce que fait l'Ordnance Survey, qui a bien negocie le virage numerique et attaque aujourd'hui Internet. Voici deux communiques instructifs.

Notamment le premier, qui montre comment l'Ordnance Survey va mettre en ligne son propre referentiel a grande echelle , sous forme d'objets elementaires ( features ) facile a integrer dans n'importe quelle application, en fonction de la diversite des besoins, et non de produits packages, chers et difficiles a utiliser, comme la BD Topo, meme assortie du label RGE...

Cela fait des annees que le SPDG demande cette evolution. D'autres montrent le chemin...

Quand au deuxieme communique, qui montre le role de sensibilisation que peut jouer un institut carographique dans le domaine des SIG, est-ce que cela ne releve pas des missions de service public de l'IGN ?

Georges Bertrand

It's the map of Britain, but not as we know it - The new heart of
Britain's mapping
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The map of Britain is changing forever. Ordnance Survey, the nation's
mapping agency, is harnessing the latest digital technology in a radical
new multi-million pound framework for referencing geographical
information. It's a trailblazing initiative that will affect all walks of
life.
Ordnance Survey's digital map data is already said by independent experts
to underpin £100 billion worth of economic activity in Britain.
It helps the police catch criminals, motorists to plan journeys with
in-car navigation, and insurance firms to calculate risk. Fire fighters
save lives by finding hydrants more quickly, while water companies track
burst pipes across their networks, saving time and precious resources.
In the National Health Service alone, digital mapping boosts the 999
response times of ambulances, helps hospital chiefs source extra beds, and
supports vital research into the prevalence of diseases.
Now, Ordnance Survey has begun the countdown to a new generation of
incredibly detailed mapping based on a common digital framework.
>From autumn 2001 a new range of products and services will be available
online 24 hours a day and seven days a week, offering unprecedented uses
for the era of e-commerce and mobile technology.
The key aim is to make it easier for public bodies and businesses to pick
and mix the mapping they need, merge it with their own data, and link it
to that of others. The results are expected to include better value for
money, more consistent data, and higher quality services across a broad
spectrum of British life.
It is the ease of digital data exchange and association which will bring
huge benefits to public services and private businesses, says Vanessa
Lawrence, Ordnance Survey's Director General and Chief Executive. Both
sectors are increasingly using computer-based geographical information
systems to integrate and analyse data from many sources, so this enhanced
flexibility is likely to prove a major boost.
In the future, you won't even need extra hardware to access digital
mapping. People will demand their own choice of mapping through the
Internet, mobile telephones and interactive TV.
Ordnance Survey's new, seamless information base, known as the Digital
National Framework (DNF), will offer definitive, consistent and maintained
referencing of more than two billion man-made and natural landscape
features in Britain.
They include everything from forests, roads and rivers down to barns,
garden plots, and even postboxes.
Only Ordnance Survey, with mapping detailed enough to show the shapes and
outlines of individual buildings and tiny natural features, could attempt
such a huge task. Features will be reformatted into self-contained
polygons and individually labelled with a 16-digit topographic identifier
(TOID), a unique numerical code designed for easy recognition by
computers.
A TOID may be seen as a digital hook on which data associated with its
feature can be hung. For example, if two organisations hold separate sets
of data about the same feature, they could share what they know through a
simple exchange of numbers. This could involve anything from property
records to environmental data.
We are making it much easier to attach extra information to features
within computerised systems, says Ms Lawrence. While their positions can
be pinpointed accurately on maps using the National Grid or coordinates
from the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS), we recognise the
potential to do much more than is currently possible.
The DNF will offer every map user exactly what they want - the power to
choose specific information and dispense with the rest.
The likely range of uses is already impressive, but it should multiply
even further as the DNF is taken up. This is because businesses and public
bodies will link their information to the TOIDs. So, together with
Ordnance Survey's partners, the following applications are possible:
You've just arrived in an unfamiliar town. GPS technology in your palmtop
or mobile phone shows your exact location. You could ask it where the
nearest hotel is and how to get there. One click on the map and you could
find out the room rates, lunch menu, opening times, and entertainment.
Once you've left, you could even email comments to the management.
You could buy or sell a house much quicker through a much faster exchange
of property records among solicitors, estate agents and government land
officials.
Your business, whatever its size, could map in all relevant customer data
to a single point of reference. This could help with processing orders, so
cutting costs and administration. Your interactive TV could help you
choose the best schools for your children. Pinpointing a school location
on a map could reveal data on exam results, projected pupil numbers, and
Ofsted reports.
Farmers could link data on the type and yield of a particular crop to a
field TOID, easing the burden of paperwork for business and officialdom.
They could also 'subdivide' their field management if they want to plant
separate crops, using the TOID to link the new records.
Some Ordnance Survey customers are already tasting the future through a
trial digital index, the Ordnance Survey National Buildings Dataset
(NBDS).
It pinpoints all of Britain's 40 million buildings, including around 15
million without specific postal addresses. Among them are electricity
substations, barns, public toilets, gas and oil holders, and
non-residential windmills.
The NBDS offers a host of benefits for emergency services, housing
associations, utilities, insurers and property management firms. It's uses
include statistical analysis, asset management, command and control,
pollution analysis, flood risk assessment, and planning.
Once online delivery begins next year, the DNF will be able to supply
change-only updates showing where new features have been added or old ones
removed. These will keep users' databases permanently in line with those
of Ordnance Survey.
Users will also be able to have data delivered according to a particular
theme such as roads, railways or water features, further broadening their
choice.
And for the first time, the price of Ordnance Survey data will
automatically include a licence fee to use it for a specified period. This
will cut administration for users.
The roots of the DNF began in the 1970s when Ordnance Survey pioneered the
computerisation of large-scale mapping, a process originally seen as an
aid to the design and production of paper maps.
Surveyors and aerial photographers gathered a massive amount of data to
create a unique master map of Britain, the National Topographic Database
(NTD), made up of 230,000 fixed tiles or squares of mapping.
This is a world-renowned resource updated every night, though a huge
re-engineering project has still been necessary to help it underpin the
DNF. The new version will be capable of handling much more complex
positioning data than before, eventually including height information for
3-D mapping.
Making the DNF a reality has involved detailed research among customers to
ensure data is offered when they want it and in the way they want it.
Existing Ordnance Survey data products will be made consistent with the
DNF, while clear paths will be put in place to help customers convert to
the new data.
The DNF will revolutionise the way geographical information is managed
and used, says Ms Lawrence. Ordnance Survey has been the engine room of
British mapping for more than 200 years. Our existing products and
services are first class, but we recognise that web technology is changing
everything. More and more digital information will become available, and
the DNF will enable Ordnance Survey to be the content provider of choice
for location-based data in the new information economy.
As we go further into the era of e-commerce, the DNF will provide major
benefits to our customers and Great Britain plc as a whole. It is the
heart of our business, both now and in the future.
What is the DNF?
*A definitive, consistent and maintained base for the referencing of
Britain's geographic information.
*Merges the National Grid, GPS, detailed topographic information and
TOIDs for all features. It will eventually embody height data for 3-D
mapping.
*Allows easy association of data from Ordnance Survey and its partners.
*Links the National Grid to the GPS network.
*Introduces polygons to represent both the man-made and natural
landscapes. Key customer benefits of the DNF
*Even better quality and more consistent data than currently available.
*The power to choose only the data you need from Britain's most
authoritative mapping source.
*Immediate access through online ordering and delivery, eliminating the
need for customers to hold their own data store.
*Improved value for money.
*Computer-friendly data, more easily associated with customers' own
information and that of others.

Experts launch online guide to GIS - The word’s out on digital mapping
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The world of digital mapping is the focus of an essential online guide
from Ordnance Survey, Britain’s national mapping agency.
Businesses and public bodies are discovering indispensable benefits from
computerised geographical information systems (GIS). These boost every
conceivable area of corporate activity, from sales and marketing to
command and control.
The GIS Files is a free, seven-part interactive guide aimed at anyone who
needs to know how a GIS works. It explains the key concepts and types of
digital data involved.
Monthly editions will appear on the Ordnance Survey web site -
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk - building into a comprehensive learning zone
complete with map samples and real life case studies. By registering their
email addresses with Ordnance Survey, users receive an automatic reminder
as each edition goes online.
Teachers, pupils, business leaders and local authority staff are all
expected to benefit, whether their knowledge is sketchy or informed.
The name GIS means different things to different people, but essentially
it is a set of software tools helping users to make decisions backed by
location-based data. It is an ideal way to combine, manipulate and analyse
all kinds of information for management purposes.
Supermarket chains, for example, choose where to site their stores by
modelling shoppers’ behaviour through a GIS, while health chiefs can
identify instantly the fastest route between the current location of an
ambulance and a patient.
“The GIS Files will become a vital resource for people in all walks of
life,” says Peter Flood, Ordnance Survey’s GIS Files Project Manager.
“Computerised mapping has really taken off due to advances in desktop
technology. It is being used in ever more imaginative ways, and there’s
never been a better time to learn about it. As Britain’s national map
maker, we are delighted to spread the word.”