1. Higher Education Profiling using Open Source GISA Primer on OpenStreetMap Data, Mapnik & OpenLayers Oliver O’Brien & Alex Singleton Department of Geography University College London

2. Contents The Problem Requirements The Solution OpenStreetMap Data Mapnik OpenLayers Data Sources Putting it all Together The Completed Atlas

3. The Problem: Presenting the Data A large amount of education-related spatial information available from various governmental bodies but not in a readily accessible graphical form (i.e. maps) for non-technical users. Dept. for Schools, Children and Families Communities and Local Government Higher Education Funding Council for England Higher Education Statistics Agency Office for National Statistics “Widening participation” initiatives require effective ways to view such data, to make decisions on target schools and areas.

4. Requirements I. Straightforward Standalone GISes Hard to use (Haklay, 2009a) Often expensive Require delivery of data to the client

5. Requirements I. Straightforward Web GISes Slow Unattractive Difficult and/or expensive to build May require delivery of vector data to the client

6. Requirements I. Straightforward “Slippy Maps” Simple to use Very popular Simple to build Powerful API (e.g. Google Maps API)

7. Requirements II. Accessible Software installation Requires time and skill Constrained by platform Plug-ins Generally require a fast computer Still some platform issues A solution without installation or plug-ins is most accessible HTML, CSS, AJAX PNG images

8. Requirements III. Self Contained No dependencies on third parties with constraints Ordnance Survey “tile limits” The “derived data” problem, Google and Ordnance Survey Can’t put Ordnance Survey derived data on a Google Maps “mashup” Government departments often provide data that has been geolocated from Ordnance Survey mapping (e.g. using National Grid References) Ordnance Survey is being very active at protecting use of its data at the moment

9. Requirements III. Self Contained Full control over what’s on the map Google’s colour scheme and branding can be distracting

10. The Solution: An Education Atlas Static tiles of choropleth maps Minimal computer requirements Scalable Mapnik Makes “beautiful” raster maps OpenStreetMap data Easily available data source to create background maps Full control over what is included OpenLayers Provides the “slippy map” interface familiar to users Self-contained

11. Using OpenStreetMap Data For a background map to provide context Will include roads, town names, coastlines We don’t want all the data – just what we need Ways to obtain the data Directly from osm.org as XML, requires converting Shapefiles produced by CloudMade or Geofabrik Data quality and completeness Improving rapidly (Haklay, 2009b) Now pretty good for England (Reed, 2009) Can always obtain a very up-to-date dataset www.openstreetmap.org

12. Using Mapnik “Mapnik is a Free Toolkit for developing mapping applications. Above all Mapnik is about making beautiful maps.” – mapnik.org Data Sources Shapefiles PostGIS databases Direct from OpenStreetMap Tiles Can be configured to systemically create square tiles at different zoom levels for the whole country www.mapnik.org

13. Using Mapnik Stylesheets for the cartography e.g. minor rivers and canals <Rule> <Filter>[waterway]='river' or [waterway]='canal'</Filter> <MaxScaleDenominator>80000 </MaxScaleDenominator> <LineSymbolizer> <CssParameter name="stroke">#88c <CssParameter name="stroke-width">3 <CssParameter name="stroke-linejoin”>round <CssParameter name="stroke-linecap">round </LineSymbolizer> <TextSymbolizername="name" face_name="DejaVu Sans Book" size="10" fill="#666" halo_radius="1" placement="line" min_distance="200"/> </Rule>

14. Using OpenLayers A way to display maps on a website Just a simple web browser is needed Accepts “layers” from many sources Google Maps Microsoft Bing, Virtual Earth, Yahoo ArcGIS 9.3 Mapping Services Ordnance Survey OpenSpace More powerful (but more complex) than the popular Google Maps API www.openlayers.org

15. Other Data Sources New Popular Edition Postcoding Government Data Combined with UKBORDERS boundary data, to create choropleths of each educational metric Includes the National Pupil Database with postcode, for Key Stage 4 (GCSE) and Key Stage 5 (A-Level)

16. Putting it all Together: Tile Generation OpenStreetMap API Stylesheet Geofabrik Shapefiles Mapnik PostGIS Database Other .gov.uk Tiles Shapefiles UKBORDERS mySQL Database DSCF.gov.uk

17. Putting it all Together: The Website Web Browsers OpenLayers Tiles mySQL Database The layers in OpenLayers Top: Schools (pins) Middle: Network (B&W) NPEMap Postcodes Bottom: Choropleth (colours)

18. The Completed AtlasIDACI in Hampstead vs. Willesden, London

19. The Completed AtlasA-Level French Popularity in S.E. England

20. Putting it all Together: The Completed AtlasA-Level Geography Popularity in England

21. The Completed AtlasOutput Area Classification in Manchester

22. The Completed AtlasIDACI in Manchester

23. The Completed AtlasGCSE Performance in Manchester