Case Study: Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council achieves safer, more efficient slope management and increased biodiversity with Ordnance Survey

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council - Customer Case Study

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council struggled to manage and risk-assess its grassed areas using paper maps, making it hard to identify which slopes were safe to cut, collect data for council strategies, and target sites for increased biodiversity. Ordnance Survey provided geospatial data—notably OS MasterMap® Topography Layer and OS Terrain® 5—to address the council’s need for accurate, up-to-date terrain information.

Ordnance Survey digitised historic plans and combined topography and height datasets to calculate slope steepness (e.g., areas >15°), aspect and hillshade, enabling faster decisions about cutting, machinery selection and wildflower planting. The solution reduced manual surveying, simplified risk assessment, improved staff health and safety, allowed better resource allocation and made it easier to identify and monitor biodiversity sites across the borough.

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council

Rob Barnett

Park Manager