emapsite acts on surveyors’ requests to keep....

09 November 2009, 10:55am

emapsite acts on surveyors’ requests to keep benchmark data intact

Surveyors in Great Britain are using emapsite to continue to access the locations and heights of traditional benchmarks despite their removal from the latest Ordnance Survey digital map data.

emapsite has reintroduced benchmarks as an additional layer in the latest OS MasterMap data which can be viewed online in emapsite’s Plans Ahead mapping service.

Benchmarks were the mainstay of traditional survey control information in Great Britain until the growth of GPS.

They record height above Ordnance Datum and are most commonly found on buildings or other semi-permanent features.

Nearly 200 ‘fundamental’ bench marks were built and maintained, establishing more than 500,000 ‘lower order’ marks for measurement purposes over several decades.

As it was not economically viable to continue maintaining the physical network given the move to GPS, Ordnance Survey eventually began removing benchmark information from the updates to its large-scale OS MasterMap Topography Layer dataset in summer 2009.

James Cutler, emapsite’s Managing Director, said: “Despite the accuracy and uniformity of satellite-based survey techniques, we have had repeated requests from surveyors saying they would still like benchmark information available.”

Survey Solutions, one of the UK’s largest independent survey companies, is one of those using the Plans Ahead service.

Managing Director James Cooper said: “While the survey industry has been using GPS for many years, emapsite’s move widens access to height data for those surveyors still requiring physical control information.

“They may want benchmarks to help with checking GPS measurements, to keep for their records or simply out of interest.”

emapsite's Plans Ahead service is aimed at users across the land and property and AEC sectors interested in accessing the most up to date and detailed Ordnance Survey mapping for their projects.

It provides a range of tools that enable users to view, export and customise Ordnance Survey data for reports and planning applications. Features include graphical and textual annotation, area and line measurement as well as other hybrid GIS functionality.

As a platform for standards-based, interoperable geographic web services, Plans Ahead functionality can be integrated into internal business processes or third party applications using emapsite inside services.

www.emapsite.com/mapshop

THE 2012 GAMES ORGANISERS SHOULD ADOPT A DISTRIBUTED MODEL FOR THEIR DATA AS WELL AS FOR THE EVENTS THEMSELVES, SAYS JAMES CUTLER.

GeoConnexion UK