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New PSGA data to help speed up emergency response times

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Emergency ambulance. Photo credit: Getty Images
Emergency ambulance. Photo credit: Getty Images

A new selection of location datasets, including two new products, have been released as part of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA). The new data and products have been delivered by Ordnance Survey (OS) and are set to support customers working in the emergency services, sustainability, land management, transport and property both in public and private sectors.

One of the new products is the OS Emergency Services Gazetteer (ESG), which will enhance the way that emergency services respond to and manage incidents. The OS ESG is a comprehensive and maintained database of locations. It will contain 1.3 million features (names, places and objects), such as motorway, road junctions and roundabouts. 

The OS ESG was developed in close collaboration with the blue light community and will continue to grow over time as new features are added. It is designed to equip responders with the precise location information they need to act quickly to save lives and property during emergencies.

It is particularly effective in identifying the location of areas that have no addresses, like named cliffs and named waterfalls. It will provide a single, unified source of truth for accurate location information, aiding both those in control rooms and on the front line. 

The other new product is the OS Multi-modal Routing Network that has been developed in response to customer feedback and brings all OS transport information together in one place, reducing the effort required in preparing the data for use in routing applications. Local authorities will be able to use this data to plan safe routes to school and colleges, and emergency services will be able to improve their emergency planning for incidents at specific locations. 

The release also includes enhancements to the OS National Geographic Database (NGD) such as: 

  • buildings data – which will help users develop a better understanding about the energy performance of buildings
  • new Field Boundary and land cover information – beneficial for a range of environmental sector customers, environment agencies across England, Scotland and Wales, major landowners and farmers, as well as both local and central government in delivering net zero ambitions 
  • enhancements like the Tram Track attribution – showing where trams are present on the road network, beneficial for road safety and streetworks 

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