🆕OS NGD Data in Dashboards
Introduction
Dashboards provide a simple yet effective way of visualising spatial data without the need for specialist geospatial software. The visuals included in this article all have the advantage of a drag-and-drop interface, meaning that there is minimal setup needed to visualise spatial data and associated attributes – geospatial software is not needed to experience the benefits of OS data!
Using dashboards also has the advantage of easily integrating with other non-spatial data, meaning that you can compare your own internal statistics with OS data to create a clearer picture of the project of interest.
Example use cases
Healthcare
Dashboards are already used for examples such as real-time and historic spatial analysis to improve service responsiveness and manage hospital environments, creating heatmaps of Emergency Department and Ambulance arrival to manage staffing and congestion, and infection-prevention Hotspot Tracking.
Can link health data to OS NGD Address using UPRN, which can then be visualised in PowerBI to identify vulnerable areas and provide support.
Can link OS NGD Buildings to population health KPIs to evaluate ease of access to GP surgeries, pharmacies, A&E wards, greenspaces etc., and can link this to OS NGD Transport features and travel time data to identify less accessible communities that may need more support.
Retail
Joining OS NGD data such as Buildings/Boundaries with customer data to visualise sales performances at a store to region level, for example using choropleth or heat maps.
Identifying locations for new retail outlets based on customer data and suitable properties from OS NGD Buildings/Address, for example showing footfall using bubble maps or heat maps.
Can use map visuals alongside other PowerBI visuals such as treemaps to show product sales by categories.
Urban Planning and Address Mapping
Linking Addressing information to population statistics to better understand demographics and plan future service development accordingly – for example, can join customer-owned statistical data to addresses using UPRN to then visualise in a PowerBI visual, which can then be made more interactive with slicers.
OS NGD RAMI data can be used alongside collision data to create heatmaps of high-risk roads and can be combined with commute patterns to prioritise road management and improve travel safety.
Combining OS NGD Buildings data (e.g. solar panel presence, building height) with customer data on energy efficiency using UPRN to aid estate management and net-zero modelling.
Emergency Response and Planning
Linking customer data on flood risk and vulnerability with OS NGD Building attributes such as basement presence, to identify structures at high risk of flooding so that evacuation and emergency support can be prioritized accordingly.
Using OS NGD Transport and RAMI data alongside hazard information to identify routing for emergency services and evacuation routes.
Using OS NGD Transport and OS NGD Address to validate addresses in emergencies and streamline blue light dispatches.
A GIS. For this tutorial QGIS 3.22.4 – Białowieża is used
ASCII grid data. For this tutorial the following 12 tiles from OS Terrain 5 are used:
SU33NE; SU33NW; SU33SE; SU33SW; SU34SE; SU34SW; SU43NE; SU43NW; SU43SE; SU43SW; SU44SE; and SU44SW;
The OS Maps API light_27700 mapping was also used to add some geographic context
Advantages of using OS NGD data with Dashboards
The ability to download OS NGD data in .csv format makes it ideal for integrating in dashboards – dashboard software such as Microsoft PowerBI and Qlik are able to ingest spatial data in .csv format, so OS NGD data provides the perfect structure to drag-and-drop data and produce visuals easily and effectively.
All visuals support point data, such as OS NGD GB Address, and many visuals support both point and vector data, allowing for visualisation of a variety of OS NGD dataset from OS NGD Buildings to OS NGD Transport Networks.
OS NGD GB Address data can be joined with other datasets using UPRN easily, which can then easily be visualised alongside other OS NGD datasets.
How to load OS NGD data into Microsoft PowerBI
To initially get OS NGD data into Microsoft PowerBI, firstly download your data of interest from the Data Hub, ensuring that data you download is in .csv format.
Add data into PowerBI through Get data -> Text/CSV -> Load.
Once you have done this, the dataset will be available in the Data panel to add to new visuals.
How to utilise OS NGD data with PowerBI Visuals
Azure Map Visual
Data Types Supported: Point Data, Line Data (as reference layer), Polygon Data (as reference layer)
Visualisations Supported: Bubble Map, Cluster Bubbles, Heat Map, 3D Column
How to add OS NGD Address data to visual
Add Latitude and Longitude to corresponding fields
Within the ‘Format your Visual’ menu, you can change symbology within Format Visual to produce Bubble maps, Cluster Bubbles, Heat Maps, or add a 3D aspect to the data, for example viewing highestfloorlevel with OS NGD GB Address (in this case, you would add highestfloorlevel to the Size field when adding data to your visual).
You can also use the Azure Map visual alongside Slicers to filter data e.g. classification description.
There are also additional features of this visual to explore, such as an in-built Traffic Layer with real-time incident mapping, data of which is obtained through Microsoft Azure Map Services.
Point, Line and Polygon data can also be added to the visual by uploading it as a reference layer – this can be uploaded in all major spatial formations including shapefile, as well as csv format.
Esri Visual
Data Types Supported: Point Data alongside ArcGIS Online Data
Visualisations Supported: Points, Time, Heat Map, Drive Time, ArcGIS Online Feature Layers
How to add NGD data to visual
Firstly, add the ArcGIS for PowerBI visual to your page – the ArcGIS for PowerBI should be pre-installed in the visualizations tab.
When you add the Esri Visual, you can either choose to sign into your ArcGIS Online account or continue as guest (note that if you do not sign into an ArcGIS Online account, the features of this visual will be much more limited).
Add northings to Latitude (Y) and eastings to Longitude (X)
In the popup Check the spatial reference, click Update Location Type, and change the Spatial Reference to British National Grid.
You can change size or colour of points according to an attribute of interest by adding the corresponding attribute into the Size or Colour field in Build Visual
If looking at 5 or fewer features, you are able to do buffer or drive time analysis with these points, as long as you are logged into your ArcGIS Online account.
If linked to your ArcGIS online account, you can also join data within your PowerBI project to layers from your account – more information can be found here (note that your join layer must have a common attribute for the join to be successful, for example UPRN/USRN).
Esri also have their own dashboard tool within ArcGIS Online – more information about this can be found on their website.
Icon Map Pro Visual
Data Types Supported: Point and Vector Data
Visualisations Supported: Circles, Heatmap, H3, Images/Icons, Lines, WKT/GeoJSON, KML, Vector Tiles, ArcGIS Feature Layer
How to add OS NGD data to visual - Point datasets
To add Icon Map Pro to your list of visuals, click the ... icon -> Get more visuals, then click Icon Map Pro from the list of visuals, and Add.
Once you’ve added the Icon Map Pro visual to your page, if trying to visualise OS NGD Address data, add UPRN to *ID (required) field.
For other point data, add eastings to Longitude (X) and northings to Latitude (Y), and add field of interest to Circle Size. Then go to Format Visual -> Data Layers and Select Circles (for example, can also select Heatmap or H3 for point datasets if of interest)
If you wish for all circles to be the same size, place a field such as highestfloorlevel under this category as this is needed to create the circle visual, and in Format Visual -> Data Layers -> Circles – Configuration, set the Minimum and Maximum Size to be equivalent.
Ensure that under Cicles – Configuration, EPSG is set to 27700.
Click Background Layer and set Map Source to be Ordnance Survey, select your preferred Ordnance Survey Map Style under Ordnance Survey Configuration, then under API Keys & Authentication, enter your OS Maps API key to access the OS Style Backdrop.
How to add OS NGD data to visual - Vector datasets
Add OSID to the *ID (required) field
Add Geometry to Image/WKT/GeoJSON, and go to Format Visual -> Data Layers and select WKT/JSON (from file)
Under WKT/GeoJSON Configuration, ensure ESPG is set to 27700
Click Background Layer and set Map Source to be Ordnance Survey, select your preferred Ordnance Survey Map Style under Ordnance Survey Configuration, then under API Keys & Authentication, enter your OS Maps API key to access the OS Style Backdrop
To add further formatting, you can use functional formatting under colour to change data according to attribute (e.g. building height) and add additional slicers to filter data. Icon Map Pro does not come with an in-built ability to add a legend, however this can be achieved using Slicers when looking at attributes with discrete values – more information can be found on Icon Map’s website.
Icon Map Pro also has a complementary visual, Icon Map Slicer, that provides additional capabilities for selecting items on the map, and filtering the report based on location. It also has 3D capabilities such as 3D terrain and extruded polygons. More information relating to this visual can be found here: Icon Map Slicer - Interactive Map Filtering for Power BI | Tekantis
How to utilise OS NGD data with Qlik
Data Types Supported: Point, Line, Polygon
Data Formats Supported: Shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV, GML
Visualisations Supported: Heatmap, Charts, WMS, TMS, Raster basemaps
GeoAnalytics Operations Available: Buffer, Dissolve, Intersects, Routing, Travel Areas, Nearest Neighbour
How to add NGD data to Qlik
Add a map visualisation to a sheet by navigating to Charts > Visualization > Map.
To add vector data to the map, the data table must first be added to your sheet, and must include valid geometry (either in GeoJSON or WKT notation, or XY coordinate fields).
Vector data can then be added by clicking on the map visualisation and navigating to Add Layer > Area layer / Point Layer / Line Layer.
OS Maps API integration into a map visualisation requires the ZXY API Endpoint.
To add OS Maps API as a backdrop map, click on the map visualisation and navigate to Add Layer > Background Layer > then select Format > TMS and enter the API URL when prompted.
More Information
OS NGD data can be downloaded from the Data Hub.
More information on using the in-built PowerBI Visual can be found here: OS Maps for Power BI Visual Getting Started Guide | OS Download Products' Documentation
More information on how to install and use Icon Map Pro in PowerBI can be found on their website.
More information on how to add the Esri PowerBI Visual can be found on their website
More information on using Qlik can be found on their website.
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