How do the land registry compile their maps?

ProDave

We bought a bare plot of land in 2013 to build a house. At that time the LR maps just showed the outline of the plot and a very rough square box on most plots showing roughly where the house was, but it was a very basic map indeed. But it was adequate to identify the land.

Fast forward to today when an idle moment I had a look again at the land registry (actually the Scottish land registry as that is where we are) I was surprised to see that now their maps are very detailed indeed, obviously based on OS maps as they now include contours and land features. But I was even more surprised that the outlines of all the buildings are now very accurate, and include our new build house that was built in the last couple of years.

I was wondering how they created the accurate plans. They look to accurate so be from satellite photos, I wonder if someone has physically been and surveyed the outlines of all the houses? If so nobody asked our permission to do so.

Also interesting is the name of our new house appears on the plan (we bought it as land next to ..... as it did not have a name then) That is good going as in 4 years I have failed to get the new house name onto the postcode address file.

AdrianC

Did you build the house to the plans submitted for planning permission...?

ProDave

AdrianC wrote: »

Did you build the house to the plans submitted for planning permission...?

Yes of course I did. so my plans could have been lifted from that.

but what about all the older houses, that 5 years ago were a very basic block outline and now seem quite detailed and accurate, even to the point most garden sheds are portrayed accurately.

davidmcn

The base map is simply the Ordnance Survey map, it's not compiled by the Land Register. The OS update it every so often when they're aware of development - they'll use aerial photos and ground-based surveys.

p00hsticks

ProDave wrote: »

I was wondering how they created the accurate plans. They look to accurate so be from satellite photos, I wonder if someone has physically been and surveyed the outlines of all the houses? If so nobody asked our permission to do so.

Have you seen how accurate satellite photos can be these days ?
But it doesn't necessarily have to be satellite, they could use aerial or drone photography.



For accuracy, my money any day would be on aerial photos rather than someone physically wandering around on the ground with a tape measure

cloo

Yes, it would be OS. People can measure stuff very accurately by satellite tech these days - there are some orgs even using that technology to detect subsidence by satellite. Mind boggling stuff!

ProDave

The only satellite pictures I have seen are the google ones. We have a lot of trees and they cast massive shaddows on a clear day (and it has to be a clear day to get a satellite image) which would make it hard to see enough detail.

I wasn't expecting a survey with a tape measure. More likely someone walking about with a total station?

davidmcn

ProDave wrote: »

The only satellite pictures I have seen are the google ones. We have a lot of trees and they cast massive shaddows on a clear day (and it has to be a clear day to get a satellite image) which would make it hard to see enough detail.

I wasn't expecting a survey with a tape measure. More likely someone walking about with a total station?

It'll be aerial photos from a plane (which in practice is what most of the Google etc images are, not satellite photos), and the OS will have access to better resources then you get for free on the internet. Think they only resort to ground surveys these days where things can't be easily seen from the air e.g. where hidden by trees.


More info here:
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/overview/what-we-do.html

phill99

Even pre satellite imaging OS maps were incredibly detailed. When I was a trainee surveyor in the mid 1980s, I was always incredibly surprised about the amount of detailing that - particularly - the 1:1250 maps had on them, including outhouses, walls etc.


With digitisation and the Supermap platform, the sky is the limit for the amount of data that can be shown on a map, including subterranean services etc.


OS still employ land suveyors looking at areas through theodolites, but rely heavily on digitised data now.

p00hsticks

ProDave wrote: »

The only satellite pictures I have seen are the google ones. We have a lot of trees and they cast massive shaddows on a clear day (and it has to be a clear day to get a satellite image) which would make it hard to see enough detail.

I beleive that there are surveying techniques now that allow you to 'see through' trees - for example, LIDAR

Slithery

p00hsticks wrote: »

I beleive that there are surveying techniques now that allow you to 'see through' trees - for example, LIDAR

Indeed. The aerial mapping that you can see on Google et al is only a fraction of the information and resolution that is available for purchase if you have the money and a good enough reason.