THE CHANGING NATURE OF GEOSPATIAL DATA – CHALLENGES FOR A NATIONAL MAPPING AGENCY

Abstract

National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies have been creating geospatial products for customers for many decades and, in some cases, for over two centuries. During that time the nature of the products largely remained the same, consisting of cartographic representations of the world, usually generalized and projected in a two-dimensional form. Even when mapping agencies began to convert their mapping from paper to digital form, the products created were largely based on their paper map counterparts. In recent times, the general public has become far more aware of geospatial data due to global initiatives from Google, Bing, Apple, OpenStreetMap and others. While some users of geospatial data still require the same products as before, many other users need different kinds of geospatial data and products, ones which will provide new challenges to National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies. In this paper we discuss some of these new geospatial data users and illustrate some the challenges using an example from Ordnance Survey’s recent experience of a project in the connected autonomous vehicle domain.