OS Detailed Path Network

A routable, fully-connected, heighted path and track network for Great Britain's National Parks

Daniel Reeves

Introduction

OS Detailed Path Network is a fully-connected, heighted path network covering Britain’s National Parks. The product is a digital representation of the roads, tracks and paths in the National Parks of Great Britain that the public may use to travel on and enjoy the great outdoors and is the first OS path and track network product for the rural environment.

OS Detailed Path Network gives the data attribution needed to suggest routes tailored to activities. This might be an easy, one-hour walk on man-made surfaces, or a 15 mile, circular cycle ride from a car park.

Users can create solutions such as off-road navigation apps, and build navigation websites and apps that help people find great routes and stay on the right track. Using OS Detailed Path Network data also helps promote the responsible use of the paths, trails and cycle routes within National Parks.

Emergency services using the data in their navigation devices will be able to see how steep the climb to an incident will be, thus enabling them to choose the best route.

How has this product been created?

The OS Detailed Path Network product has been created from a number of existing Ordnance Survey data sources:

The raw data used to create the product has undergone extensive data re-engineering, manual editing and validation, with input from local area specialists to ensure the product reflects what's on the ground.

Key features of the product

The product is designed to facilitate applications and services to provide routes for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders, primarily for leisure purposes.

The key features of the OS Detailed Path Network product are as follows:

  • A connected link and node network that facilitates routing
  • Heighted data
  • A description of the type of route – road, track or path
  • National and local cycle routes identified
  • Named long distance routes
  • Names of roads, tracks and paths
  • Information on rights of way (England and Wales only)
  • Routes within access land identified (England and Wales only)

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Feature types included in the product

The data is supplied as a link and node model, similar to the OS MasterMap® Highways Networks and OS Open Roads products. Links represent the general alignment of roads, tracks, paths and rights of way; nodes are used to record the connectivity between links explicitly. Named routes are represented as collections of links.

The OS Detailed Path Network product contains three feature types: RouteNode, RouteLink, and Route.

RouteNode

Point geometry at the start or end of a RouteLink feature which is used to record the connectivity between links.

A selection of RouteNodes in Dartmoor National Park shown with OS Open Zoomstack as a basemap giving context.

RouteNodes are given a 'descriptive_term' attribute value, which indicates whether the RouteNode is a junction of RouteLinks or the start or end of a RouteLink.

RouteLink

Line geometry representing the general alignment of roads, tracks, paths and rights of way.

A selection of RouteLinks in Dartmoor National Park shown with OS Open Zoomstack as a basemap giving context.

RouteLinks are attributed with metrics such as their length, the height gain in both directions, the surface type, and whether any potential hazards are crossed - see the Attribution section below for more details.

This attribution enables developers or those using the product in routing applications to determine the difficulty of the route and the time taken to walk or cycle along it.

The ID of the RouteNode at each end of the RouteLink is also given as 'start_node' and 'end_node'.

Route

A Route is a feature representing a named entity that forms a recognised and signed route that the public can use.

This includes paths that are part of Recreational Routes from long-distance  National Trails  like the Pennine Way or one of  Scotland’s Great Trails  such as the West Highland Way, to more local routes like the West Devon Way or Tarka Trail.

Routes that form the  National Cycle Network  are also included, as are other cycle routes.

Route features do not have their own geometries; instead they are included via a lookup table that references the RouteLinks that make up the Route. A Route feature can include references to different types of RouteLink. For example, a Route feature may include sections of paths, tracks and public roads to create a continuous named trail.

An example of the Route lookup table is shown to the right with the Routes that cross Dartmoor National Park. The 'descriptive_term' attribute shows whether the route is a Recreational Path or part of a cycle network, and the 'name' attribute gives the name of the path or the number of the cycle network.

The IDs of the individual RouteLinks that make up the Route are shown in the 'adopts' field of the lookup table.

The image to the right shows a selection of Routes in Dartmoor National Park shown with OS Open Zoomstack as a basemap giving context. This has been created by filtering on RouteLinks that have a 'true' value against any of the following attributes:

  • 'adopted_by_recreational_route'
  • 'adopted_by_national_cycle_route'
  • 'adopted_by_other_cycle_route'

Combining the feature types shows the relationship between RouteNode, RouteLink, and Route for the example area in Dartmoor National Park, with OS Open Zoomstack used as the basemap.

Attribution

As outlined above, the attribution of features in OS Detailed Path Network have been designed to provide the detailed information required to enable the selection of a suitable route for specific users and their chosen method of travel. Dependent on the type of user, the attribution also enables journey time estimation.

The following sections detail the types of information that OS Detailed Path Network attribution provides.

Usability of a route Information on the physical usability of a route is provided through the following attribution that describes the type of route: - 'descriptive_term' - For example, an A or B road classification, a track or a path. - 'surface_type' - The nature of the material the route is made of, for example, sealed or unmade surfaces, as shown on the right.

Access rights for a route The access rights for a route reflect the permissions granted to travel along it. This is usually based upon the mode of travel, for example: - Public rights of way (England and Wales only) - Access land (England and Wales only) OS Detailed Path Network RouteLinks show whether the path is a footpath, bridleway, byway, or other permissible access right, as shown in the image to the right.

It should be noted that whilst the product is indicative of the right of access along roads, paths and tracks within Great Britain's National Parks, it is not the legally definitive source of access information, including public rights of way.

Names The names of sections of road, track or path are included, where known, to provide the means to deliver additional information to the user. For example, walk along “High Street” and turn into “Canal Walk”.

Examples of named roads, tracks, and paths in Dartmoor National Park are shown in the image to the right.

Difficulty of a route The difficulty of a route depends upon many factors such as how much ascent and descent there is, the nature of the land being traversed, and the presence of any potential hazards along the route, etc.

Some of these factors have been included within the data, which allows solutions to be developed that select routes appropriate for specific users, dependent upon their level of fitness and expertise in outdoor navigation.

OS Detailed Path Network is a heighted network product.

Height values have been interpolated from the source data used for the  OS Terrain® 5  and  OS Terrain® 50  products.

This enables RouteLinks to be attributed with information about the total 'climb' when travelling along a RouteLink, and is given for both directions of travel.

These values are found in the 'vertical_gain_in_direction' and 'vertical_gain_against_direction' attributes.

The average gradients in the image to the left are shown for illustrative purposes and are not an intrinsic attribute of the data. They have been calculated based on the 'vertical_gain...' attribute values and the length of the RouteLink.

An indication of when a route may pass through an area that could pose a risk or impediment to passage, for example, proximity to a cliff or a scree slope, is given via the 'potential_hazard_crossed' attribute.

RouteLinks with the attribute value of 'potential_hazard_crossed' = 'true' are shown in red in the image to the left, along with the type of hazard, e.g., marsh, boulders, rock, etc.

Move the slider across the image to see the features as seen in OS MasterMap® Imagery Layer.

Attribution is provided to inform the user as to whether the route crosses a danger area, such as a military training ground.

Moving the slider across the image to the left shows the RouteLinks superimposed on 1:25,000 Scale Colour Raster, showing the location of the Merrivale Range Danger Area in Dartmoor National Park.

RouteLinks with the attribute value of 'crosses_danger_area' = 'true' are shown in red.

Use cases

The OS Detailed Path Network has been created to allow partners and developers to design and provide bespoke applications to provide routes within Great Britain's National Parks for pedestrians, cyclists, and horse riders.

Use cases include:

  • Developing interactive maps that enable cyclists, walkers, and horse riders to plan their own routes across a National Park, giving them the information they need on the nature of the path surface, the difficultly of the route, the rights of way, and whether it is on or off road.
  • Suggesting pre-designed routes of varying length and challenge that inspire visitors to enjoy the natural, historic, and cultural highlights.
  • Creating downloadable walking guides for families that will make it easy for them to find somewhere to park, find facilities, and follow clear directions, giving reassurance about how long a walk will take and what terrain will be encountered.

How to get this product

OS Detailed Path Network is available via the  OS Data Hub .

It is available for download for the whole of Great Britain (National Parks only) in the following formats:

  • GeoPackage
  • Vector Tiles
  • GML 3.2 Simple Features

The product is updated annually in October. The product is supplied as a complete dataset; change-only updates (COUs) are not available.

Supporting Documents

  •  OS Detailed Path Network - Overview : The overview introduces the product and gives context for all users. It highlights key features, provides examples of potential uses for the product and lists details like file sizes, supply formats, etc.

This StoryMap has been created using the following data:

  • OS Detailed Path Network
  • OS Open Zoomstack
  • 1:25,000 Scale Colour Raster
  • OS MasterMap® Imagery Layer

Further details can be found from  OS Data Products. 

More StoryMaps can be found on our  More Than Maps  platform.