NSDI in the UK
by Robin A. McLaren and Robert P. Mahoney
Key words: NSDI, NLIS, Modernising Government, Service
Procurement.
Abstract
The vision of a National Land Information Service (NLIS) for the UK
was first conceptualised by Prof. Peter Dale at the AutoCarto London
conference in 1986 and envisaged fast and easy access to an
authoritative, accurate and comprehensive record of all land and
property in the UK.
Over the intervening period, the Geographic Information (GI) sector
has spent considerable effort in lobbying government and educating the
potential service providers and customers about the social and
economic benefits of implementing a NLIS. Until recently, this effort
only resulted in an endless series of consultative exercises and
eventually a small scale pilot project in Bristol, England to support
conveyancing. However, in the past 9 months NLIS has been adopted as a
Modernising government initiative and is now being taken
forward by a partnership between the local government’s Improvement
and Development Agency (IDeA), the organisation responsible for
creating the Information Age infrastructure for local government, and
HM Land Registry. The vision is for a one-stop integrated service that
will allow users access, via a computer, to various spatially related
data sets.
The provision of NLIS related services are currently being procured
from the private sector and are the first government services to be
procured under the Channel Implementation Policies, issued with the
Modernising government White Paper. The launch of NLIS services by
the winning license holders is anticipated to be later in 2000.
The paper will review the progress of NLIS from concept to
information service implementation and, through the lessons learned,
will explore the variety of drivers that have at last made NLIS a
reality.
Robin A. McLaren
Know Edge Ltd.
33 Lockharton Ave
Edinburgh EH14 1AY
Scotland, UK
E-mail: Robin_McLaren@compuserve.com
NSDI in the UK
1. Summary of National
NSDI Initiatives
1.1 National Land Information Service (NLIS)
[ http://www.nlis.org.uk ]
The vision of a National Land Information Service (NLIS) for the UK
was first conceptualised by Prof. Peter Dale at the AutoCarto London
conference in 1986 and envisaged fast and easy access to an
authoritative, accurate and comprehensive record of all land and
property in the UK.
Over the intervening period, the Geographic Information (GI) sector
has spent considerable effort in lobbying government and educating the
potential service providers and customers about the social and
economic benefits of implementing a NLIS. Until recently, this effort
only resulted in an endless series of consultative exercises and
eventually a small scale pilot project in Bristol, England to support
conveyancing. However, in the past 9 months NLIS has been adopted as a
Modernising government initiative and is now being taken
forward by a partnership between the local government’s Improvement
and Development Agency (IDeA), the organisation responsible for
creating the Information Age infrastructure for local government, and
HM Land Registry. The vision is for a one-stop integrated service that
will allow users access, via a computer, to various spatially related
data sets.
The provision of NLIS related services are currently being procured
from the private sector and are the first government services to be
procured under the Channel Implementation Policies, issued with the
Modernising government White Paper [ http://www.citu.gov.uk
]. One license will be awarded for the NLIS hub (wholesaler)
responsible for the distribution of data to the three other competing
licenses holders for the provision of NLIS services (retailer) to
government and businesses. The licenses will be awarded in July 2000
and the launch of NLIS services by the winning license holders is
anticipated to be later in 2000.
1.2 Digital National Framework (DNF)
[ http://www.ordnancesurvey.gov.uk
]
The Digital National Framework (DNF) initiative was launched by the
Ordnance Survey (National Mapping Agency) in April 2000. The DNF
provides a permanent, maintained and definitive geographic base to
which information with a geospatial content can be referenced.
Referencing can be achieved directly through National Grid
coordinates, or indirectly, through unique identifiers. The
identifiers are given to real-world features such as buildings, roads
and land parcels i.e. features currently captured by Ordnance Survey
in what is currently described as the National Topographic Database.
The Digital National Framework therefore incorporates the existing
national georeferencing system based on the National Grid, and the
National Topographic Database, as proven foundations.
The National Topographic Database will shortly be
converted into a seamless database of 2,000 million separate items,
including the features that better reflect the real world to form the
DNF. These items will provide the «atomic units» that third parties
can use to aggregate in modelling extents of their own data. Each of
these DNF features will be referenced individually by a unique
identifier.
It is expected that for the foreseeable future
Ordnance Survey customers and partners will wish to continue to hold a
copy of the topographic database, or part of it, on their own
computer. It is also anticipated that the data delivery and update
process will be under the command of the user to meet their
operational needs. A key benefit in the seamless data approach are
improvements in servicing data update.
In future this will be managed at the feature
level, (or groups of features); addressing the issue of supplying just
those features that have changed (i.e. change only information) which
is a facility that many users have been seeking for some years. The
data request mechanisms are likely to be:
- via a geographic area defined by the user and/or
- some form of feature class selection (i.e. only buildings),
- by digital identifier.
The National Topographic Database (vector based) is currently being
restructured and identifiers allocated to objects. It is expected that
this will be available as a product in 2002.
1.3 National Land & Property Gazetteer (NLPG)
[ http://www.idea.gov.uk ]
Local government’s Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) is
currently compiling a database of all addressable properties in
England and Wales. This is being implemented in partnership with the
private sector (and does not currently involve the Ordnance Survey). A
company in the private sector will be responsible for compiling and
maintaining the NLPG database.
1.4 National Geo-spatial Data Framework (NGDF)
[ http://www.ngdf.org.uk ]
This organisation, sponsored by the stakeholders, is currently
facilitating a national metadatabase and has awarded a 3 year contract
to ESRI (UK) Ltd to manage the metadatabase clearinghouse facility.
This will be operational in the third quarter of 2000.
2. Lessons Learned in the
UK
- An effective framework for co-operation between the public and
private sectors is essential for accelerating the implementation
of a sustainable NSDI;
- Governments must be briefed effectively on the value to society
for investing in a NSDI;
- The NSDI message must be translated into a politically
meaningful message, e.g. transportation, social exclusion,
economic development;
- NSDI can facilitate the Joined Up Government agenda, but only if
there is clarity in the roles and responsibilities of the public
sector stakeholders;
- NSDI's may well be created more successfully from the 'bottom
up' in a fragmented manner rather an idealised 'top down' fully
co-ordinated approach.
Robin A. McLaren
Know Edge Ltd.
Scotland, UK
E-mail: Robin_McLaren@compuserve.com
21 June 2000
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