What can I do to report errors in the England Green Infrastructure Mapping?

Errors can occur in the England Green Infrastructure Mapping for a variety of reasons. These include:

  • Errors and/or omissions (missing data) in the source data that will have transferred into the maps.
  • There may be errors generated by the generalisations and assumptions that have had to be made to make the mapping practicable.
  • There may be errors due to cartographic simplification or the divergence of cartographic representation between different source data.
  • There may be errors that have been generated by processing error or data corruptions.
  • There may be errors as a result of time lag (data drift) between the source data content at the time it was produced and change on the ground. Changes on the ground may take time to appear in newer versions of the source data.

Please note that different datasets may depict a polygon differently. This may be due to differences in cartographic alignment or methodological and definitional differences. The data owner may therefore not agree that there is an error if differences are only down to these reasons.

The input data for the Green Infrastructure mapping comes from a large range of datasets and data owners. To avoid different versions of datasets becoming available in the public realm Natural England will not update or change any datasets that it does not own.

To fix errors within the GI mapping database it is first necessary to identify the dataset the error in question originates from. This can be done on the GI Mapping portal by:

  • Turning on the 'All Green and Blue Infrastructure' layer in the ‘Green and Blue Infrastructure Assets’ tab.
  • Clicking on the polygon containing the error. This will open a dialogue box (on the left of the screen) giving information about the polygon. One of the pieces of information listed is ‘Dataset’. This identifies the source data being used (which can be accessed via the links in the User Guide Section 2). All datasets used in the mapping are listed in the User Guide Section 2 and the data owner is listed alongside the dataset.

Once the data owner has been identified it is necessary to report the error to that data owner. They will then assess if an error requires correction and update the dataset in due course. This fix will then be carried over into the next scheduled update to the Green Infrastructure mapping datasets.

Error reporting by organisation

Environment Agency

If the error is associated with a dataset owned by the Environment Agency e.g. WFD Ecological Status 2019 Rivers, please use the following webpage: https://support.environment.data.gov.uk/hc/en-gb/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000027938

Forestry Commission

If the error is associated with a dataset owned by the Forestry Commission e.g. National Forest Inventory, please use the following contact: forester.geodata@forestresearch.gov.uk.

Historic England

If the error is associated with a dataset owned by Historic England e.g. Scheduled Ancient Monuments, please use the following contact: heritagelistenquiries@historicengland.org.uk.

National Trust

If the error is associated with a dataset owned by The National Trust e.g. National Trust Land Always Open, please use the following contact: OpenData@NationalTrust.org.uk.

Office for National Statistics

If the error is associated with a dataset owned by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) e.g. Population 2011, please use the following contact: ons.geography@ons.gov.uk.

Natural England

If an error has been found with data associated with a dataset managed by Natural England, for example ‘Natural England Local Nature reserves’ please continue your enquiry with data services at: data.services@naturalengland.org.uk. Data services will then forward your enquiry to the relevant data manager.

Ordnance Survey

If the error is associated with a dataset owned by the Ordnance Survey e.g. OS Open Greenspace, then errors can be reported here: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/contact-us?topic=Error-with-OS-mapping&subtopic=Report-an-error#Error-with-OS-mapping.

Sport England

If the error is associated with a dataset owned by Sport England e.g. Sports Facilities, please use the following webpage: https://www.activeplacespower.com/contactus/new

Public Rights of Way

Natural England does not maintain the source data for Public Rights of Way (PRoW). These data are maintained by local Highway Authorities and errors should be reported to the relevant local Highway Authority directly. Highway Authorities maintain the Definitive Map which is the legal document with respect to the status and routes of known rights of way. The context around Public Rights of Way, their legal status and route delineation is complex and any issues potentially affecting such can only be resolved by the respective Highway Authority.

The local Highway Authority is usually the “Upper Tier” Local Authority for an area (usually the County or Unitary authority). In the England Green Infrastructure Mapping, Public Rights of Way data has been sourced from that published by the local Highway Authorities and a list of those from whom data has been sourced is provided in the User Guide Section 1. There are 47 Highway Authorities for whom data could not be sourced for Version 1.2 of the mapping and no PRoW data for these authority areas is presented in the England GI Mapping.

The PRoW data in the England GI Mapping will be periodically updated, but the complex nature of such data compilation means there may be a number of years between the versions of the compiled data presented in the GI mapping.

Accessible land missing from the map

Natural England are aware that there are likely to be many Green Spaces that are not included in the Green Infrastructure mapping datasets. The Green Infrastructure portal publishes data which is available under an Open Government License (OGL). As such any datasets that are not OGL but may hold records of greenspaces are not included within the mapping.

Similarly, Natural England is unable to publish data on Greenspaces that it does not have access to. For example, a greenspace may be managed and owned by a community organisation for the purpose of public recreation.

However, if this greenspace has not been mapped and the data has not been supplied to the Ordnance Survey or to Natural England it will not be included in the Green Infrastructure mapping datasets.

If you are a data owner and want to add data to the GI mapping database there are two options:

  1. Contact the Ordnance Survey
    • If you wish for your land and data to be incorporated into the OS Open Greenspace dataset you can contact the OS at the following link: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/contact-us#Error-with-OS-mapping
    • If the OS accept the data and adds it to OS Open Greenspace it will be then added to the Green Infrastructure mapping datasets at the next scheduled update.
    • If data is accepted in this manner, it will be incorporated in future Accessible Green Infrastructure and Accessible Natural Greenspace Standard (ANGSt) analysis.
  2. Continue your enquiry with Natural England (data.services@naturalengland.org.uk)
    • Data services will be able to forward your request to the relevant data manager.
    • Data submitted in this way will be added as land with permissive access. As such, land submitted in this way will not be included in future ANGSt analysis but will provide additional contextual information on land that provides some form of permissive access.