OS Open TOID Overview
This overview introduces OS Open TOID and gives context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of potential uses, and listing details such as supply formats, currency, etc.
OS Open TOID is an open dataset of unique identifiers – Topographic Identifiers (TOIDs) – assigned by OS to real-world features extracted from the following three OS MasterMap products:
TopographicArea
TopographicLine
TopographicPoint
SiteExtent
OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads
RoadNode
RoadLink
PathLink
This product allows users to share and link information related to a wide range of landscape and built environment features with a unique identifier and generalised location which will allow them to be used easily by everyone.
TOIDs are unique and persistent identifiers, assigned by OS, for real-world features that have a physical presence in the world around you, such as a building or a road. A TOID consists of the letters ‘osgb’ and either 13 or 16 digits between 0 and 9. The TOID is allocated sequentially when a feature is created by Ordnance Survey and is never reassigned to a different feature.
For the TOID to be fully effective, it is essential that the OS-appointed TOID reference is not altered in any way.
OS Open TOID provides the identifiers for these features along with their generalised location:
Point features: The original location rounded to the nearest metre.
Line features: The midpoint of the line rounded to the nearest metre.
Polygons features: Use a point of inaccessibility algorithm to find a point that is guaranteed to be within the polygon which is farthest from all edges; this location is then rounded to the nearest metre.
Multi-polygon features (SiteExtent): Use the same method as for polygon features on the largest of the polygons.
Key features
The key features of the OS Open TOID product are:
The comprehensive inclusion of all Ordnance Survey’s capture of the physical features across Great Britain.
Access to our unique topographic identifiers, allowing you to link to the OS MasterMap products.
A guide to which products the features are sourced from.
The ability to reference between a feature and qualitative data using a unique identifier.
Product applications
OS Open TOID offers a range of opportunities to link and share disparate datasets against a unique identifier, with a location.
For example, a local authority may use OS Open TOID to link unaddressed buildings captured within OS MasterMap Topography Layer with information such as ownership or planning permission to build a richer picture of land and property in their remit.
OS Open TOID is a dataset that is designed to use the OS MasterMap product family as a basis with which you can create your own rich, comprehensive dataset that caters to your specific needs. It is not designed to be used as a geospatial selector for features.
Index
This overview includes the following sections:
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