GeoPackage overview

OS MasterMap Greenspace Layer is supplied as a single GeoPackage for the whole of Great Britain. GeoPackage (*.gpkg) is an open, non-proprietary, platform-independent, standards-based data format for geographic information systems (GIS), as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It is designed to be a lightweight format that can contain large amounts of varied and complex data in a single, easy to distribute and ready to use file. GeoPackage is natively supported by numerous software applications.

GeoPackage offers users the following benefits:

  • The single file is easy to transfer and offers the end-user a rich experience.

  • Attribute names are not limited in length, making the format user-friendly.

  • The file size limit is very large at 140 TB (a file size limit might be imposed by the file system to which the file is written).

  • It supports raster, vector and database formats, making it a highly versatile solution.

  • It is an OGC standard.

  • In most cases, it is a plug-and-play format.

For information on how to open, use and understand a GeoPackage dataset, please refer to our Getting Started with GeoPackage guide. For further information on GeoPackage, please see the GeoPackage website.

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