Project: UKBORDERS


(A) Background, personnel and funding

Q. Name of project

UKBORDERS.

Q. Name of project IN ENGLISH

UKBORDERS.

Q. Principal researcher(s)

Peter Burnhill, Donald Morse.

Q. Who can/should be contacted now, and how?

Name:

Alistair Towers

Postal Address:

EDINA, Main Library, George Sq, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh Scotland, EH8 9LJ

E-mail Address:

a.towers@ed.ac.uk

Web site:

http://edina.ed.ac.uk/ukborders

Q. When did research begin?

1988 (RRL Scotland)

Q. Is the project still in existence?

Yes

Q. If it still exists, when is it expected to end?

Expecting to continue for at least the duration of the forthcoming census

Q. What institution(s) was the project based in?

Edinburgh University

Q. How many people were/are employed, and for how long?

Total project staff of around 10-12 people over the past 12 years.

Q. Were these people recruited specially for the project, or were they already employed by the institution(s)?

Most were recruited specifically for the project

Q. How much did the project cost? (please give cost in local currency and (Euros and/or US dollars).

--

Q. Who paid for the project?

ESRC/JISC

Q. If the project is still underway, has all necessary funding to complete the project been raised?

Next funding round comes in the summer of 2000

Q. How easy has it been to raise the money?

The academic census programme has facilitated the academic purchase and funding of provision of the boundary data.

Q. Other than raising the money, what are the biggest problems your project has faced?

Staff migration, continuing redevelopment costs never accepted in proposal budgets

Q. Have there been any pleasant surprises in the course of the project?

Getting the historical boundary data provided to the service

Q. How likely is it that further funding might be raised within your country for a collaborative European project?

Now is the best time, as the next round of funding needs to be bid for in a few months time.


(B) Project Goals

Q. What geographical area is covered by the project? What is the MODERN legal status of this area? (i.e. is it a nation state, a province of a nation state, etc). If the area currently lacks a legal definition, when was it defined and by whom?

The geographical area covered is Great Britain. There are no data for either N Ireland or Eire in UKBORDERS.

Q. If the area currently lacks a legal definition, when was it defined and by whom?

N/A

Q. Does the project aim to:

(a) Reconstruct boundaries at a single date:

PARTLY

(b) Reconstruct boundaries at a series of dates:

YES

(c) Construct a continuous record of changing boundaries over a period:

YES - for historical data 1840 - 1910

Q. What is the earliest date covered by the project?

1/1/1840

Q. What is the latest date covered by the project?

27/4/2001

Q. What systems of units are included? (NB list ALL the types of unit included)

Contemporary Data (Valid from April 1974 Onwards)

Census

Electoral

Administrative

Postal

Other

Counties

Council Areas

Administrative Counties

Post Code Areas

Country Outline

Districts

Electoral Districts

Administrative Districts

Post Code Districts

 

Enumeration Districts

Electoral Wards

Administrative Regions

Post Code Sectors

 

Output Areas

European Constituencies

District Health Authorities

Post Code Units

 

Pseudo Sectors

Parliamentary Constituencies

Health Board Areas

 

 

Regions

Regional Electoral Divisions

National Parks

 

 

Wards

Unitary Authorities

Regional Health Authorities

 

 

Civil Parishes

 

Police Force Areas

 

 

New Towns

       
         

Sample of Anonymised Records

       

Urban and Rural Areas

       

 Historical Data (January 1840 to December 1910)

Unit

Earliest Year

Latest Year

Registration/Union Counties

1840

1911

Registration Districts

1840

1911

Poor Law Unions

1840

1911

Administrative Counties

1911

1974

Local Government Districts (coming soon)

1911

1974

Scottish Civil Parishes

1855

1890

English Civil Parishes (coming soon)

1912

1981

London Sub-districts

1840

1920

Q. What is the project's final product?

In short - an historic boundary GIS

An online extraction system, that allows users to select a boundary by specifying an area, a boundary type and a timeperiod of interest and then presenting them with valid boundaries that meet this criteria. They are then asked about the GIS software that they are using, and can download the correct data format accordingly.

Q. What other publications has your project produced? In particular, please give details of any publications on methodology, and any publications in other languages?

Mackaness W, Edwardes A, Urwin T, 'Generalisation Algorithms for Digitised Boundary Data' (1998).

Morse, D. J. M, Towers, A. L & Mackaness, W 'Systems for accessing boundary data', in The Census Data System, Resources, Tools and Developments (The Stationary Office, Norwich, UK, 2000).


(C) Sources

Q. What base map is/was used to record the information? When was it created, and by whom? Is it published or in an archive? Answers here will depend on whether the end-product is on paper or electronic.

English and Welsh DBD provided to UKBORDERS by the ED-Line consortium (MVA Systematica, Ordnance Survey, London Research Centre, Landmark) who captured the boundary data for the 1991 census of population. Scottish DBD was captured by GRO(s). They worked on a series of four different scale maps which were the 1:250,000 1:50,000 1:10,000 and 1:1250.

Historical data captured by Great Britain Historical GIS Project; see separate report.

Q. What scale was this base map on?

N/A

Q. If the base map was not already in digital form and your project created a digital version, how was this done?

N/A

Q. If your project constructed a record of boundary CHANGES, what sources of information were used? How was this information gathered?

Historical Data:
From 1840 to 1910 various English and Welsh boundaries have had their changes captured.

Contemporary Data:
1981 census dbd held at UKBORDERS
1991 census DBD held at UKBORDERS
We are currently bidding to hold the 2001 census data at UKBORDERS

Q. What other maps besides the base map were used? When were they created, and by whom? What scale were they on? What boundaries did they show? How reliable are they?

N/A

Q. Did your project make any use of DESCRIPTIONS of boundaries? Who created these? Where are they preserved? What problems did you have converting this information into lines on maps?

N/A


(D) End Product

(D2) Geographical Information Systems

Q. What software was used?

Arc/Info v6 and v7 (currently road testing v8) from ESRI.

The online web interface runs mod Perl CGI, which queries an Ingres meta database for information relating to the users request. Once the users request has been specified to one or many datasets, then the Perl runs a dynamically generated AML script to produce the files. A viewer can preview the boundary files, this is done using some C based freeware called RTAGIF which produced a GIF from an RTA file.

Q. If your GIS was specially written for you, or heavily tailored for your project, who was responsible for programming? How can they be contacted?

Development was done in house here at EDINA. Contact EDINA@ed.ac.uk for more information.

Q. What were your reasons for your choice of software? If you started again now, would you use the same software?

Arc/Info was freeware and the rest of the software was available as freeware also. This was in the time before any commercial IMS existed.

Q. Describe the data files making up the final system:

GIS translation files that allow users to download them via FTP, and import them into their GIS software.

Q. Are they a standard GIS file format? If not, where can detailed documentation be found?

Yes - MapInfo (Mif/Mid and Native table format), ArcView shapefiles, Arc/Info export format files, Autocad DXF.

Q. What map projection is used?

UTM and referencing via the National grid

Q. Assess the overall accuracy of your digital mapping.

Contemporary, extremely accurate. Historical, reasonably good.

Q. From your existing experience, what methodological recommendations do you have for a larger collaborative project?

Economies of scale make sense, group boundary data dissemination.

Q. Whatever the resource your project has actually created, and in the light of your experience with the project, what form of output SHOULD a new project have?

It should provide all contemporary GIS formats.

Q. What software was used?

Arc/Info v6 and v7 (currently road testing v8) from ESRI.

The online web interface runs mod Perl CGI, which queries an Ingres meta database for information relating to the users request. Once the users request has been specified to one or many datasets, then the Perl runs a dynamically generated AML script to produce the files. A viewer can preview the boundary files, this is done using some C based freeware called RTAGIF which produced a GIF from an RTA file.

Q. If your GIS was specially written for you, or heavily tailored for your project, who was responsible for programming? How can they be contacted?

Development was done in house here at EDINA. Contact EDINA@ed.ac.uk for more information.

Q. What were your reasons for your choice of software? If you started again now, would you use the same software?

Arc/Info was freeware and the rest of the software was available as freeware also. This was in the time before any commercial IMS existed.

Q. Describe the data files making up the final system:

GIS translation files that allow users to download them via FTP, and import them into their GIS software.

Q. Are they a standard GIS file format? If not, where can detailed documentation be found?

Yes - MapInfo (Mif/Mid and Native table format), ArcView shapefiles, Arc/Info export format files, Autocad DXF.

Q. What map projection is used?

UTM and referencing via the National grid

Q. Assess the overall accuracy of your digital mapping.

Contemporary, extremely accurate. Historical, reasonably good.

Q. From your existing experience, what methodological recommendations do you have for a larger collaborative project?

Economies of scale make sense, group boundary data dissemination.

... AND MORE GENERALLY:

Q. Whatever the resource your project has actually created, and in the light of your experience with the project, what form of output SHOULD a new project have?

It should provide all contemporary GIS formats.


(E) Linked Gazetteers and other Meta-Data

Q. What place-names are built-in to your mapping? Is each point/area (node/polgon) labelled with a single name, or is there some system for linking to different versions of names?

Currently no geo-cross walk facility on UKBORDERS, future plans for a geo-data browser are in place. Where appropraite polygons are labelled.

Q. Does the history/linguistic geography of your area raise special problems with naming places?

Standard names for census areas, so no, but we are not doing anything clever. An example of a problem that sometimes arises herre, is that in 1981 London was called Greater London. Due to population increases in the inter-censal years this was divided in two, (Inner London and Outer London).

Q. Have you any plans to make the place-name information gathered by your project available in any other form?

LUT's and the Geo-data browser, but these projects are just getting off the ground now.

Q. What sources have you used to research place- and area-names for use in your system?

Provided as a part of the Area Master File. Though some data can be gleaned from a variety of sources, such as concerned users, or other DBD creators such as the NHS.

Q. Are there any quite separate projects concerned with the history of place names or of administrative hierarchies in your area? If so, please give details? Are they using computers? Are they aiming to make their results available on-line?

Gazetteer for Scotland by Historic Scotland at the Geography department (http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/gaztitle.html).


(F) Preservation, Dissemination and Intellectual Property Issues

Q. Was the GIS/digital resource constructed for use by its creators ONLY, or was it intended for wider use?

Intended for wider use. The ESRC/JISC funded the purchase of the DBD on behalf of the academic community. The owners (ED-Line consortium) have also sold title to the data to the NHS and I would presume Local government as well.

Q. Are you willing to make it available for use by others?

If they are a valid member of a ESRC recognised UK Higher Education Institution then yes.

Q. Are you willing to make it available for free, or for distribution costs only? If not, what plans have you for commercial distribution?

Data is free to staff and students in UK HEI.

Q. Is the resource available NOW? If so, how and from where?

Yes if registered then its available at http://edina.ac.uk/ukborders

Q. Are there any limitations on access?

Must agree to T&C's and adhere to adding a copyright statement on any published mapping. Only to staff and students at UK HEI's.

Q. What file format or file formats is the resource available in?

MapInfo (Mif/Mid and Native table format), ArcView shapefiles, Arc/Info export format files, Autocad DXF.

Q. If the resource is available from the researcher/project that created it, what plans are there for distribution after the project ends/the researcher retires?

n/a

Q. What plans are there for updating the data files for use with more recent versions of software?

FME from Safe software, is a piece of software that allows users to transfer data between a variety of GIS formats, and ensures that export formats are up to date.

Q. What plans are there for updating the data files to include the results of more recent historical research?

Phase II of the historical GIS mapping project will be integrated once delivered.

Q. Do you own all intellectual property rights in the resource created by your project? If not, what other rights exist, and who do they belong to? What limitations have they imposed?

EDINA controls all the IPR for UKBORDERS extraction software. IPR for the data is controlled by the data creators ED-Line.

Q. How have Intellectual Property Rights issues limited your project?

As we are not venturing into the commercial arena, EDINA has not had any problems with IPR. But obviously we could not begin to sell this data as to do so would be competing directly with the data creators.


© Alastair Towers (Edinburgh, April 2000)

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