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This section describes the three features available in OS Open Roads. The attributes associated with these feature types are listed below along with a brief description of their data properties.
The name of the attribute and what it is describing.
The nature of the attribute, for example a numeric value or a code list value.
Describes how many times this element is expected to be populated in the data. An attribute may be optional or mandatory within the product. These are denoted by:
‘1’ – There must be a value.
‘2’ – There must be two values.
‘n’ – There may be one or more values.
‘0’ – Population is optional.
Identifies the relationship between features. These relationships are by reference only and the value will be the identifier of the referenced feature.
The RoadLink feature is a generalised representation of the road network alignment. RoadLink features are split in the following circumstances:
Where the classification changes.
Where the name changes (or ceases to apply).
Where there is a junction or roundabout at the same physical level.
The following list outlines the attributes a RoadLink feature can have, and details the definition, data type, length (where applicable), and multiplicity of each of these attributes.
A feature which represents a part or all of a named or numbered road.
Unique identifier. For RoadLink this is a GUID, which is not persistent.
Attribute name: id (GML), identifier (ESRI Shapefile), id (GeoPackage), id (VectorTile)
Type: CharacterString
Length: 38
Multiplicity: [1]
The geometry that represents the centreline of the link.
Attribute name: centrelineGeometry
Type: GM_Curve
Multiplicity: [1]
Indicator that the centreline geometry of the link is a straight line with no intermediate control points – unless the straight line represents the geography in the resolution of the data set appropriately.
Attribute name: fictitious (GML), fictitious (ESRI Shapefile), fictitious (GeoPackage), Not provided (VectorTile)
Type: Boolean
Length: 5
Multiplicity: [1]
Road classification uses a common system of route numbering, which is centrally administered for England and Wales by the Department for Transport. In all other respects, roads classification is a devolved matter outside of England.
Attribute name: roadClassification (GML), class (ESRI Shapefile), road_classification (GeoPackage), road_classification (VectorTile)
Type: RoadClassificationValue
Length: 22
Multiplicity: [1]
A alternative classification of the Road based on its usage.
Attribute name: roadFunction
Type: RoadFunctionValue
Length: 30
Multiplicity: [1]
A description of the RoadLink based on its form or function.
Attribute name: formOfWay
Type: FormOfWayValue
Length: 50
Multiplicity: [1]
The official road number assigned by the appropriate authority. Note: This includes at least one letter. For example, ‘A329(M)’.
Attribute name: roadClassificationNumber
Type: CharacterString
Length: 10
Multiplicity: [0..1]
The name of the RoadLink. Note 1: Where a road has a name in more than one language, this attribute will be the Welsh or Gaelic version. Note 2: Where a feature has more than one name, the language of each name is provided as a three-digit ISO 639-2 code ('eng', 'cym', 'gla').
Attribute name: name1
Type: LocalisedCharacterString
Length: 150
Multiplicity: [0..1]
The alternative name of the RoadLink, if any. Note 1: Where a road has a name in more than one language, this attribute will be the English version. Note 2: Where a feature has more than one name, the language of each name is provided as a three-digit ISO 639-2 code ('eng', 'cym', 'gla').
Attribute name: name2
Type: LocalisedCharacterString
Length: 150
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Identifies if this section of road passes through or over a physical structure, such as a tunnel or bridge.
Attribute name: roadStructure
Type: RoadStructureValue
Length: 14
Multiplicity: [0..1]
The calculated length of the RoadLink in metres.
Attribute name: length
Type: Measure
Length: 10
Multiplicity: [1]
Indicates if the RoadLink feature connects back on itself by having the same start and end roadNode.
Attribute name: loop
Type: Boolean
Length: 5
Multiplicity: [1]
States if the RoadLink forms part of the primary route network.
Attribute name: primaryRoute
Type: Boolean
Length: 5
Multiplicity: [1]
States if the RoadLink forms part of the trunk road network.
Attribute name: trunkRoad
Type: Boolean
Length: 5
Multiplicity: [1]
The node coincident with the first vertex of the geometry attribute.
Attribute name: startNode
Length: 38
Multiplicity: [1]
The node coincident with the last vertex of the geometry attribute.
Attribute name: endNode
Length: 38
Multiplicity: [1]
Identifier of the Road feature that holds the information about the road classification number the RoadLink forms part of in the OS MasterMap Highways Network product.
Attribute name: roadNumberTOID
Length: 20
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Identifier of the Road feature that holds the information about the road name the RoadLink forms part of in the OS MasterMap Highways Network product.
Attribute name: roadNameTOID
Length: 20
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Motorway junctions are represented by a MotorwayJunction feature.
The following table lists the attribution the MotorwayJunction feature can have, and details the definition, data type, length (where applicable), and multiplicity of each attribute.
A feature that represents the numbered motorway junction.
Unique identifier. For MotorwayJunction, this is a GUID, which is not persistent.
Attribute name: id
Type: CharacterString
Length: 38
Multiplicity: [1]
The location of the node.
Attribute name: geometry
Type: GM_Point
Multiplicity: [1]
The Motorway junction number designated by the national authority (Department for Transport), for example, M3 J9. Note: Where two Motorway Junctions meet, there are two features, for example, M3 J2 and M25 J12.
Attribute name: junctionNumber
Type: CharacterString
Length: 12
Multiplicity: [1]
A code list is a controlled set of values for a free text data type which can be extended. This section identifies the code lists used within OS Open Roads and describes their values.
RoadNode features are added at the start and end of every RoadLink feature. Where roads connect at the same level, a single RoadNode feature is captured.
The following table lists the attribution the RoadNode feature can have, and details the definition, data type, length (where applicable), and multiplicity of each attribute.
A point representing either the start or end of a highway, or connectivity between two or more RoadLink features.
Unique identifier. For RoadNode, this is a GUID, which is not persistent.
Attribute name: id
Type: CharacterString
Length: 38
Multiplicity: [1]
Description of the function of a road node in the road transport network.
Attribute name: formOfRoadNode «voidable»
Type: FormOfRoadNodeValue
Length: 20
Multiplicity: [1]
The location of the node.
Attribute name: geometry
Type: GM_Point
Multiplicity: [1]
OS Open Roads is supplied as an Esri shapefile. The shapefile format is an open specification format to store geometry and attribute information about spatial features that is developed and maintained by Esri.
The naming of attributes in GML and Esri shapefile is different; in shapefile attribute names are limited to 11 characters. The tables in the following sections map GML attribute names to their equivalent names in shapefile.
GML contains an attribute that describes the geometry of the feature; this is not applicable for shapefile as they are separated by their geometry.
This technical specification provides detailed technical information about OS Open Roads. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.
OS Open Roads is a topologically-structured link-and-node road network of Great Britain. The links represent an approximate central alignment of the road carriageways and include all classified and unclassified roads that make up Great Britain’s road network.
OS Open Roads is a generalised product which is automatically derived from Ordnance Survey large-scale data. Generalisation is the process of reducing the scale and complexity of the data whilst maintaining the important elements and characteristics of the features. The appropriate product scale is 1:25 000, with a recommended viewing scale range of 1:15 000 to 1:30 000.
OS Open Roads is supplied in the following formats:
Geography Markup Language (GML): A national vector dataset in GML version 3.2.1 Simple Features Profile – Level 1.
Shapefile: A national vector dataset in ESRI shapefile (.shp).
GeoPackage: A national vector GeoPackage (.gpkg) file.
Vector tiles: A national vector tiles file (MBTiles).
Each feature has a unique identifier. The identifier property name, which holds the feature's unique identifier, differs for each format:
GML: gml:identifier property.
Esri shapefile: identifier property.
GeoPackage: id property.
The identifier is not persistent between product versions and there is therefore no change history information for features.
OS Open Roads is based on the INSPIRE Transport Networks Road application schema, which is based on the ISO/TC 211 family of open standards.
OS Open Roads extends the INSPIRE specification with an additional feature type, MotorwayJunction.
The OS RoadLink feature type extends the INSPIRE RoadLink feature type with a number of additional properties.
The data structure is described by Unified Modelling Language (UML) class diagrams and accompanying tables containing text. The UML diagrams conform to the approach specified in ISO 19103 - Conceptual schema language and ISO 19109 - Rules for application schema, as adopted by INSPIRE.
Colour conventions are used in the diagrams and tables to distinguish the INSPIRE specification from the additional properties that have been added in the Ordnance Survey specification. In the UML diagrams, classes from the INSPIRE data specification are grey, whereas classes in the Ordnance Survey specification are orange. All code lists are blue and enumerations are shown in green. The tables which follow later in this technical specification use orange for feature types, blue for code lists, and green for enumerations.
Class names are conceptually meaningful names (singular noun) in UpperCamelCase.
Class names end in Value when the class is assigned the stereotype <<CodeList>> or <<Enumeration>>.
Property names (attributes and associations) are in lowerCamelCase.
The following stereotypes are used on UML elements:
There are four key types of relationship that can be defined between classes, only the following two exist in OS Open Roads:
Generalisation/specialisation – This is used to denote either:
An extension relationship - The target class represents the same real-world phenomenon. It has the same name as the class it extends. It simply includes additional properties. OR
A sub-typing relationship - The target class defines a specialised sub-type of a parent feature, for example, a TransportNetwork is a sub-type of a generic Network class.
Directed association – This is used to denote relationships between features. These relationships are by reference only (that is, they are implemented by a property whose value is the identifier of the related feature or object). The directed end is assigned a name that describes the relationship and a multiplicity.
This technical specification includes the following sections:
Classification of roads exists to ensure that there is a feasible, logical road network throughout the country. Road classifications should be set to take into account the traffic management goals and road categorisation approach of the local highway authority (LHA).
The RoadLink feature is attributed with a roadClassification with a data type of RoadClassificationValue. The following table lists the codes which are used populate this field and gives a description for each code.
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| GML Attribute | Vector Tiles attribute |
|---|---|
The RoadNode feature is attributed with a RoadNodeCategory with a data type of TransportNodeTypeValue. The following table lists the codes which are used to populate this field and gives a description for each code.
This code list is inherited from INSPIRE and is not extendable.
Functions of road nodes within Euroroads.
http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/codelist/FormOfRoadNodeValue
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
The RoadLink feature is attributed with a roadStructure with a data type of RoadStructureValue. The following table lists the codes which are used to populate this field and gives a description for each code.
This section describes the GML format for OS Open Roads. We recommended you read this in conjunction with the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC), OpenGIS® Geography Markup Language Encoding Standard v3.2.1.
The XML specifications that GML is based on are available from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website: https://www.w3.org/XML/.
Information about Unicode and UTF-8, the character encoding that we use, is available on the Unicode Consortium website: http://www.unicode.org/.
XML schemas are used to define and validate the format and content of the GML data. The GML v3.2.1 standard provides a set of schemas that define the GML feature constructs and geometric types. These are designed to be used as a basis for building application-specific schemas which define the data content.
The Ordnance Survey application schema, OSOpenRoads.xsd, which is referenced by the data, is available on the OS Open page of the XML file resources section of our website.
The OS schema imports the INSPIRE Transport Networks Data Specification, which in turn imports the GML 3.2.1 schemas. These in turn import schemas produced by the W3C, which are available from the W3C website at: http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace.html.
All of these schemas are defined in XML Schema Definition (XSD) language, as defined by the W3C.
The OS application schema uses the XML namespaces detailed in the table below. A link to each definition is provided in the last column.
| Prefix | Namespace identifier | Definition available at |
|---|---|---|
OS Open Roads conforms to the GML 3.2.1 Simple Features Profile – Level 1.
GML is designed to support a wide variety of capabilities, ranging from simple contextual mapping to products that include complex geometric property types, and even spatial and temporal topology. The GML
Simple Features Profile defines a restricted subset of GML, which allows for greater interoperability.
OS Open Roads consists of three core features:
RoadLink – A feature which represents all or part of a road.
RoadNode – A feature which represents the end of the network, a change in attribution, or a junction.
MotorwayJunction – A feature which provides junction information along roads classified as a Motorway.
Features are provided as a FeatureCollection.
This product was built with the INSPIRE Transport Networks Data Specification as a basis, which results in the product inheriting attribution from INSPIRE. An overview of the product structure is detailed below, which highlights the inherited INSPIRE feature types and attribution. Note that properties of the INSPIRE specification which are voidable are not included in the image below or the subsequent tables. For information on the INSPIRE properties omitted from this product, please see the .
GML attribute naming is used in the main text of this guide. GeoPackage and vector tile attribute naming is very similar to GML as there are no character-length limitations in the GML, GeoPackage or MBTiles formats.
However, shapefile attribute naming is different due to the 11-character limit for attribute names in the shapefile format. Attribute mappings between the formats are provided in the , , and pages.
The individual feature types and code list nodes within this UML diagram are explained in detail in the feature types pages.
| GML attribute | ESRI shapefile attribute |
|---|
| Stereotype | UML element | Description |
|---|---|---|
Motorway
A multi-carriageway public road connecting important cities.
A Road
A major road intended to provide large-scale transport links within or between areas.
B Road
A road intended to connect different areas and to feed traffic between A roads and smaller roads on the network.
Minor Road
A public road that provides interconnectivity to higher-classified roads or leads to a point of interest.
Local Road
A public road that provides access to land and/or houses, usually named with addresses. Generally, not intended for through traffic.
Local Access Road
A road intended for the start or end of a journey; it is not intended for through traffic but will be openly accessible.
Restricted Local Access Road
A road intended for the start or end of a journey; it is not intended for through traffic and will have a restriction on who can use it.
Secondary Access Road
A road that provides alternate/secondary access to property or land; it is not intended for through traffic.
Application schema
Package
Parent package containing sub-packages and elements that comprise part of the modular specification.
FeatureType
Class
A spatial object type [ISO 19136].
No stereotype
Class
A non-spatial object type, for example, document or organisation.
Type
Class
A structured data type with identity.
Enumeration
Class
A fixed controlled set of values for a free text data type.
CodeList
Class
A controlled set of values for a free text data type that may be extended.
Voidable
Property
A property that is required but is either not currently captured (unknown) or is partially populated (unpopulated).
LifecycleInfo
Property
Property considered part of the life cycle information.
Motorway
A multi-carriageway public road connecting important cities, classified by the Department for Transport. A Motorway does not form part of the official road classification scheme as it is a Special Road. However, it has been included to allow them to be classified.
A Road
A major road intended to provide large-scale transport links within or between areas.
B Road
A road intended to connect different areas and to feed traffic between A roads and smaller roads on the network.
Classified Unnumbered
Smaller roads intended to connect unclassified roads with A and B roads; often linking a housing estate or a village to the rest of the network.
Note 1: These were ‘minor roads’ in ITN (retired OS product) and are sometimes known unofficially as C roads.
Note 2: A Street may be assigned a local classification number by the local highways authority.
Unclassified
Roads intended for local traffic.
Note 1: The vast majority (60%) of roads in the UK fall within this category.
Note 2: These may be designed unofficial local road classifications, for example, D, E, F and G roads.
Not Classified
Roads that have not been assigned a road classification at national or local level by a designation authority.
Unknown
The classification of the road is unknown because the RoadLink is not a Motorway, A or B road, and the RoadLink has not been matched to any other road classification at national or local level.
id
id
junctionNumber
junction_number
junction
Road node where three or more road links connect.
pseudo node
Exactly two road links connect to the road node.
road end
Only one road link connects to the road node. It signifies the end of a road.
roundabout
The road node represents or is a part of a roundabout.
gml
xsi
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema– instance
Built into XML http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema- 1/
xlink
xml
net
urn:x- inspire:specification:gmlas:Network:3.2
tn
tn-ro
urn:x- inspire:specificationn:gmlas:RoadTransport Network:3.0
os
highway
http://namespaces.os.uk/mastermap/highwa yNetwork/1.0
road
Road In Tunnel | A road that passes underground or under water. |
Road On Bridge | A road that passes over a river, railway, road, or ravine on a structure. Note: This value is currently not populated. |
Single Carriageway | A road consisting of one carriageway with traffic in one or both directions. There may be more than one lane in either direction. |
Dual Carriageway | A road consisting of two separate carriageways with separate flow directions. The carriageways are partitioned by physical features, such as a barrier and/or verge. |
Slip Road | A link that provides exit from or entry to another link. |
Roundabout | A method of controlling traffic flow by allowing vehicles from a particular direction priority. |
Collapsed Dual Carriageway | The geometry of the dual carriageway has collapsed; this occurs where they run parallel and are less than a defined distance apart, resulting in a single line representing both carriageways of a dual carriageway. |
Guided Busway | A specially-constructed or modified route for passenger road vehicles that have been built or adapted to be steered by external means. Typically, along guided busways there is a raised kerb with a track along which small wheels protruding from the sides of the modified vehicle run. This classification is only for specific cases where buses run along specifically-designed tracks or channels that remove the need for steering. |
Shared Use Carriageway | Roads that have been altered for use principally by pedestrians, but may also provide some access for certain types of vehicles. |
id | identifier |
fictitious | fictitious |
roadClassification | class |
roadFunction | function |
roadClassificationNumber | roadNumber |
name1 | name1 |
Specified in the GML tag for name1 as xml:lang | name1_lang |
name2 | name2 |
Specified in the GML tag for name2 as xml:lang | name2_lang |
formOfWay | formOfWay |
length | length |
primaryRoute | primary |
trunkRoad | trunkRoad |
roadStructure | structure |
loop | loop |
startNode | startNode |
endNode | endNode |
numberTOID | numberTOID |
nameTOID | nameTOID |
| GML attribute | GeoPackage attribute |
|---|---|
GeoPackage (.gpkg) is defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) as an open, non-proprietary, platform-independent, standards-based data format for geographic information systems (GIS). 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 offer 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 large at 140 TB.
A file size limit could 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-in-and-play format.
For further information on GeoPackage, please see the GeoPackage website.
The naming of attributes between GeoPackage and GML is very similar as neither format limits the number of characters for an attribute name. The following tables map the GML attribute name to the GeoPackage attribute name.
The GML contains an attribute which describes the geometry of the feature; this is not applicable to GeoPackage files as they are separated by their geometry.
| GML attribute | ESRI shapefile attribute |
|---|---|
| GML attribute | Vector tile attribute |
|---|---|
id
id
fictitious
fictitious
roadClassification
road_classification
roadFunction
road_function
roadClassificationNumber
road_classification_number
name1
name_1
Specified in the GML tag for name1 as xml:lang
name_1_lang
name2
name_2
Specified in the GML tag for name2 as xml:lang
name_2_lang
formOfWay
form_of_way
length
length (has two fields: length and length_uom)
primaryRoute
primary_route
trunkRoad
trunk_road
roadStructure
road_structure
loop
loop
startNode
start_node
endNode
end_node
numberTOID
road_number_toid
nameTOID
road_name_toid
id
identifier
formOfRoadNode
formOfNode
4.1.3 MotorwayJunction
GML attribute
ESRI shapefile attribute
id
identifier
junctionNumber
number
id
id
fictitious
*
roadClassification
road_classification
roadFunction
road_function
roadClassificationNumber
road_classification_number
name1
name_1
Specified in the GML tag for name1 as xml:lang
name1_lang
name2
name_2
Specified in the GML tag for name2 as xml:lang
name_2_lang
formOfWay
form_of_way
length
length
primaryRoute
primary_route
trunkRoad
trunk_road
roadStructure
*
loop
*
startNode
*
endNode
*
numberTOID
*
nameTOID
*
For guidance on using the product in GeoPackage format, please see theGetting started with GeoPackage guide.
| GML attribute | Vector tiles attribute |
|---|---|
id
id
formOfRoadNode
form_of_road_node
| GML attribute | GeoPackage attribute |
|---|---|
id
id
formOfRoadNode
form_of_road_node
5.1.3 MotorwayJunction
GML attribute
GeoPackage attribute
id
id
junctionNumber
junction_number
OS Open Roads is supplied as a national vector tile set in a single MBTiles file. This is a lightweight set of tiles that are efficient and fast to render in your software, provide high-resolution data and give a seamless experience when zooming in and out. The data is supplied in Web Mercator projection (ESPG:3857).
The naming of attributes between vector tiles and GML file is very similar as the vector tiles set within the MBTiles file is not limited in the number of characters for an attribute name. The tables included here map the GML attribute name to the attribute name in the vector tiles.
An asterisk symbol (*) in the following tables indicates that a particular attribute is not available in vector tiles (for example, the fictitious attribute is available in GML, but not in vector tiles).
The vector tiles schema, as well as the attribute zoom levels, is detailed in the following three tables. The Zoom levels columns indicate whether or not the specified layer and attribute are displayed within that zoom level (Y – yes, N – no).
| Attribute | Zoom level: 0 to 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attribute | Zoom level: 0 to 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attribute | Zoom level: 0 to 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
id
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
junction_number
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
id
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
road_classification
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
road_function
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
form_of_way
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
road_classification_number
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
name_1
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
name_1_lang
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
name_2
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
name_2_lang
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
length
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
primary_route
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
trunk_road
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
id
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
form_of_road_node
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y