🆕End of Life Notice – OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer
The End of Life notice for the OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer product, containing key dates, the reasoning behind the product withdrawal, product migration guidance and FAQs.
Overview
The OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer product will become End of Life on 31 March 2027. As of this date, Ordnance Survey will cease to maintain or publish updates, and access to the product will be removed from the OS Data Hub, OS Features API and OS Vector Tile API.
Key dates
Final publication of the product: October 2026
Full withdrawal date: 31 March 2027
Why is this happening?
As part of our strategic product roadmap, OS is committed to the evolution of geospatial data and services in order to meet customers’ needs. Through the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA), OS continuously delivers enhancements to the OS National Geographic Database (OS NGD) to provide new, richer data across all market sectors. We’ve improved usability by providing customers with access to the latest OS NGD data enhancements via new systems (the OS Data Hub and APIs) rather than via older and less efficient mechanisms. As a result, some of our existing products will become out of date and reach the end of their life.
Stronger alternative: The OS NGD offers enriched attribution with greater coverage that will provide more in-depth insights into greenspace use cases.
OS product consolidation: The withdrawal of OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer is part of a broader initiative to streamline and consolidate our product offering, ensuring our products are sustainable and better aligned with current and future customer needs. We're actively working to migrate existing customers to the OS NGD.
We understand this change will impact customers, and we are committed to providing guidance and support to facilitate a smooth migration to OS NGD.
What's the product migration path?
We recommend you migrate to using OS NGD data in the OS Land Features, OS Transport Features and OS Water Features Collections; these collections provide more granular data for solving greenspace use cases than OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer.
What are the benefits to using OS NGD data?
Customer-friendly data formats: Data is accessed through the OS Data Hub and is available to download from OS Select+Build in two widely adopted and simple to use formats – GeoPackage and CSV (comma-separated values). Data is also available in GeoJSON and vector tiles formats via the two OS NGD APIs: OS NGD API – Features and OS NGD API – Tiles.
Better coverage: The OS Land Features, OS Transport Features and OS Water Features Collections provide Great Britain wide coverage of greenspaces; OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer coverage for greenspaces is restricted to urban areas only.
Increased data update frequency: The OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer product is updated twice a year in April and October, while the three OS NGD collections are updated up-to-daily.
Choose exactly what data you take: OS Select+Build gives flexibility to choose greenspace features that are relevant to your use case as recipes and data packages can be tailor-made.
Richer attribution: The three OS NGD collections provide additional land cover attribution that will enable you to conduct more detailed analysis.
Land use classifications available: The OS Land Features Collection contains comprehensive land use classifications to indicate the prominent use of the Site feature which contains the piece of land.
Enhanced metadata: The three OS NGD collections have metadata explaining change (including first digital capture, change type, geometry update date and geometry capture method) to help you conduct analysis related to change over time for your area(s) of interest.
Cross-references to Site features: The three OS NGD collections have links to the Site Feature Type in the OS Land Use Features Collection which holds additional information on land use and names.
Further information
This page will be regularly updated with additional documentation, including specific migration guidance and FAQ answers to support you:
Comparison of OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer and OS NGD – This page provides a technical summary of things to consider when migrating from OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer to the OS NGD. It covers data supply, ordering and formats; currency; unique identifiers, and provides a comparison of the attribution of the two products.
Reach out to our support team if you have any concerns or questions.
OS NGD Select+Build recommended recipe coming soon for greenspaces
Please note, we're currently working on documentation that outlines a suggested OS NGD Select+Build recipe to replace OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer, which you will be able to take as given or tailor to fit your bespoke use cases. We anticipate this supporting documentation will become available in late Spring 2026 and it will be signposted to from this End of Life Notice page.
FAQs
Will the OS MasterMap Topography Layer product be impacted by OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer becoming End of Life?
No. OS MasterMap Topography Layer will not be impacted by this.
Will the OS Open Greenspace product be impacted by OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer becoming End of Life?
No. OS Open Greenspace will not be impacted by this.
Can I keep a copy of the final version of OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer?
PSGA Members can keep a copy of the final version of the OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer product and can continue to use it under their PSGA Member Licence.
OS Partners can also keep a copy of the final version of the OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer product for archive (professional indemnity) purposes only.
Any OS customers with an OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer Licence but not holding a licence for OS NGD Land can keep a copy of the final version of the OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer product for archive (professional indemnity) purposes only.
In all cases, the OS MasterMap Greenspace product will be unmaintained after 31 March 2027.
How long will I have access to existing OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer data packages on the OS Data Hub?
New data packages and download orders from your OS Data Hub account are available for 12 months from the initial request date. Product updates are available for 12 months from the date the update was produced.
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