GIS & Open Data Sources for UK Infrastructure

National open data portals

• data.gov.uk — the central catalogue of UK public-sector datasets; the first place to search for a named dataset.
• OS Data Hub / OS Open Data — Ordnance Survey's open products (OS Open Roads, OS Open Rivers, OS OpenMap Local, Boundary-Line, OS Terrain 50) plus the premium and OS NGD APIs. Public-sector users also have the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA).
• ONS Open Geography Portal — administrative and statistical boundaries (local authorities, wards, LSOAs, built-up areas) as GeoJSON, Shapefile and via APIs.
• DEFRA Data Services Platform (environment.data.gov.uk) — the hub for Environment Agency and Natural England spatial data.
• DfT statistics & open data — road traffic counts (AADF), road safety (STATS19), and road network data.

Environment & flood data

The Environment Agency publishes the datasets that drive the flood-risk and drainage sections of most scheme appraisals in England:

• Flood Map for Planning — Flood Zone 2 and Flood Zone 3 (fluvial and tidal), plus flood defences and areas benefiting from defences;
• Risk of Flooding from Surface Water and Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea hazard/likelihood layers;
• LIDAR composite Digital Terrain and Surface Models (DTM/DSM) at 1 m and 2 m, and the National LIDAR Programme;
• Real-time and historic river / groundwater level and flow via the Hydrology and Flood-Monitoring APIs;
• Main rivers, water framework directive waterbodies, and catchment data.

Scotland and Wales have equivalents from SEPA and Natural Resources Wales respectively.

Environmental designations

These statutory and non-statutory designations shape route corridors and are screened early in optioneering. Most are published by Natural England (England); check NatureScot and NRW for the other nations.

The MAGIC map (magic.defra.gov.uk) is the standard one-stop viewer for designations in England; the underlying layers are downloadable from the DEFRA Data Services Platform.

Heritage & archaeology

• Historic England — the National Heritage List for England: Listed Buildings, Scheduled Monuments, Registered Parks and Gardens, Registered Battlefields, Protected Wrecks, and World Heritage Sites, available as open data and map services.
• Historic Environment Records (HERs) — held by county and unitary authorities; the definitive local archaeological record, accessed via the Heritage Gateway or directly from the authority.
• Cadw (Wales) and Historic Environment Scotland maintain the equivalent registers for their nations.

Base maps & routing

• OpenStreetMap — the global crowd-sourced base map; the raw data behind many routing engines and the OSM standard tile layer.
• OpenTopoMap — a topographic render of OSM data with contour lines, useful for terrain context.
• Esri World Imagery — aerial/satellite imagery basemap.
• OSRM (Open Source Routing Machine) — fast shortest-path routing over the OSM road network; used for snap-to-road route drawing.
• OpenTopoData — an elevation API serving NASA ASTER (30 m) and SRTM (90 m) terrain for profile generation.

Geospatial file formats

Desktop & web GIS tools

• QGIS — free, open-source desktop GIS; reads every format above, connects to WMS/WFS/WMTS services, and is the standard free option for infrastructure GIS.
• Esri ArcGIS Pro / ArcGIS Online — the commercial standard; common on framework contracts and for BIM/GIS integration.
• FME — spatial ETL for format and coordinate-system translation at scale.
• GDAL/OGR — the command-line library underneath most of the above; ogr2ogr converts and reprojects almost anything.
• Leaflet and OpenLayers — the JavaScript libraries behind browser-based maps like CivilsRoute.

Licensing & attribution

Most UK public-sector spatial data is released under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL), which permits copying, adapting and commercial use provided the source is attributed. Key exceptions:

• Ordnance Survey premium data is licensed (PSGA for public-sector use, or a commercial licence otherwise); OS Open products are OGL.
• OpenStreetMap is under the Open Database Licence (ODbL) — share-alike; derived databases must be released under the same terms.
• Royal Mail PAF (postcodes) is licensed; the open ONS Postcode Directory and Code-Point Open cover most needs.
• STATS19 and most DfT / EA / Natural England / Historic England datasets are OGL.

Always reproduce the specific attribution string each provider asks for, and record dataset versions/download dates in your GIS metadata.

Source links

• data.gov.uk
• OS Data Hub & OS Open Data
• ONS Open Geography Portal
• DEFRA Data Services Platform
• MAGIC map (designations)
• Check for flooding (Environment Agency)
• Historic England — National Heritage List data
• OpenStreetMap · OSRM
• QGIS
• Open Government Licence v3.0

Dataset names, hosting portals and licence terms change. Confirm the current version and licence with the originating authority before use on a live project.