Ordnance Survey is to develop a new generation of field editing and data management systems to further enhance its most detailed mapping of Britain and speed its updating.
The national mapping agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tadpole-Cartesia and ESRI to develop the software and build the new system, which it plans to bring in to use by late 2003.
Ordnance Survey’s 400-plus nationwide surveyors will use the system to record and seamlessly update geospatial data, such as new buildings, streets and pathways, from the field to
OS MasterMap, the nation’s official and most detailed digital map database and on-line delivery service.
Currently, field staff uses pen computers to edit fixed tiles of existing mapping data, which they extract from the large-scales database. While they are doing this, access to the mapping data has to be barred to other staff who may also need to use the same data for other projects. In addition, data movements between field users and the main database in Southampton involve very large files, as all the information on each tile has to be transferred to and from the field.
The new system, named the Field Object Editor (FOE), will maintain mapping that is seamless, and all access to the data will be controlled by a sophisticated transaction management system. This will not only avoid editing complications encountered at the edge of fixed map tiles, but will also allow the existing data to be accessed simultaneously by multiple users, such as other field survey staff or those based at Ordnance Survey’s head office.
From inception, the FOE has been designed to take advantage of the development of remote communication technologies. As a result, the speed of updating will be quicker, as it will be possible for specific updates to the map to be returned to the database at any time. Furthermore, because of database enhancements at Southampton and inherent quality assurance systems designed into FOE, information collected once in the field will be available immediately to enhance a host of different products without the need for additional survey work or verification.
Following an international tendering process, Tadpole-Cartesia has been selected to be the prime contractor for the development and deployment of the FOE. It will be built around the Tadpole Group’s ESRI ArcGIS-based field mapping and Endeavors Technology’s Magi software products. Following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, a formal contract to initiate the work will now be drawn up. It is hoped that detailed work will be underway later this month (July 2002).
