OS Open Rivers Documentation

Here you will find all documentation for the OS Open Rivers product.

OS Open Rivers provides an open dataset of the high-level view of watercourses in Great Britain. OS Open Rivers GIS data contains over 144 000km of water bodies and watercourses map data. These include freshwater rivers, tidal estuaries and canals.

This product is updated every six months in April and October.

OS Open Rivers dataset visualised

Benefits

Solve challenges

Model simple what-if scenarios. OS Open Rivers lets you answer questions such as:

• Which rivers would be affected by a toxic discharge from this site?

Water quality data

OS Open Rivers lets you tag information with the river IDs used by environment agencies so everybody can use it, ideal for sharing water quality data.

Comprehensive map data

OS Open Rivers GIS data contains over 144 000km of water bodies and watercourses map data. These include freshwater rivers, tidal estuaries and canals.

Use Cases

OS Open Rivers supports a wide range of applications that use geographic information. The product can be used alone or in combination with other Ordnance Survey products, such as Terrain 50 or VectorMap District. OS Open Rivers has numerous applications, including but not limited to, the following examples:

• Relating information to the river network for both personal and business use

• Simple analytical queries (for example, the overall lengths of larger rivers in Great Britain)

• Simple planning around main watercourses using the detailed connectivity and flow (from source to mouth) information

• Regional-level environmental impact assessments (for example, an indication of what towns have rivers passing through them)

• Backdrop mapping

It is important to note that detailed analysis is not supported in OS Open Rivers; this requires the additional detail and complexity available in data from the OS National Geographic Database (OS NGD) Water Theme.

Summary

• Access: Download via the OS Data Hub

• Category: Networks

• Data theme: Water

• Data structure: Vector – Topologically structured link and node network

• Coverage: Great Britain

• Scale: 1:15 000 to 1:30 000

• Format: ESRI Shapefile, GeoPackage, GML 3.2.1, vector tiles

• Ordering area: All of Great Britain

• Publication months: April, October

Additional Information

River width requirements

OS Open Rivers does not show the width of a river. For information like this, you will need to use the Water Link Feature Type from the OS Water Network Collection of the OS National Geographic Database (OS NGD).

How to get this product

Access to this OS OpenData product is free through the OS Data Hub.

Sample data

Visualise OS Open Rivers sample data online

This product is available to try out free online using one of our three sets of sample data (Exeter, Newport and Inverness) through the OS MasterMap Product Viewer:

OS MasterMap Product Viewer

Interactive demonstrator of OS MasterMap Generation data

What's next?

To access additional documentation and resources relating to this product, please refer to the following:

Overview

The overview introduces OS Open Rivers and gives context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of uses, and listing details such as file sizes, supply formats, etc.

Technical Specification

The technical specification provides detailed technical information about OS Open Rivers. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.

Downloads

The downloads page provides links and resources to support the application of OS Open Rivers within your environment.

Ordnance Survey Website

View OS Open Rivers product information and find out how to get this product on the OS website.

New users should start with the Overview to gain high-level insight into the product. The Technical Specification contains detailed technical insights.