Case Study: Natural England consolidates priority habitat data and saves the equivalent of 12 years' work with Ordnance Survey MasterMap

Natural England - Customer Case Study

Natural England needed to maintain and update its Priority Habitats Inventory—covering 1,150 species and 65 habitats—but varying input quality and overlapping datasets made the database hard to manage. Ordnance Survey supplied its OS MasterMap Topography Layer (OS MasterMap) to provide a consistent boundary framework for the work.

Using Ordnance Survey’s MasterMap, Natural England consolidated 24 disparate habitat datasets into a single attributed layer, splitting polygons where needed and creating an automated collation process. The Ordnance Survey solution saved substantial time and cost: the automated approach replaced work that would have taken one person working full time for 12 years.

Natural England

Richard Alexander

Senior Adviser Data Mobilisation And Analysis