OS Terrain 50

  • Height and imagery

OS Terrain® 50 is an open height dataset of contours with spot heights, breaklines, coastline, lakes, ridges and formlines for Great Britain.


This product is updated annually

Free to use for everyone
Data access
  • Download
Data theme
  • Height
Data structure
  • Vector - DTM grid, Contour lines
Coverage
Great Britain
Scale/resolution
1:50 000
Format
  • GML 3.2 Simple Features
  • ASCII (DTM grid)
  • ESRI Shapefile
  • Vector Tiles
  • GeoPackage
Ordering area
  • All of Great Britain
Publication months
  • July
OS Data Hub plan
  • OS OpenData Plan (FREE)
  • Public Sector Plan
  • Premium Plan

What OS Terrain 50 provides you with

Model wind direction and lines of sight

Make better decisions about where to locate wind turbines and mobile phone masts. OS Terrain 50 lets you model wind direction and lines of sight at your desk, meaning fewer site visits.

Plan landscape defences

Get the bigger picture about flood risk, soil erosion and pollution. By showing steep hillside gradients, OS Terrain 50 helps you plan flood defences and safeguard the landscape.

More engaging maps

With the contours version of OS Terrain 50, you can shade in hills to show their height. This extra sense of depth is ideal for walking maps and apps.

Surface model entire landscapes

Get an accurate, uncluttered view of the terrain with the grid version of OS Terrain 50. Its 50 metre post spacing gives you a surface model of the entire landscape, including major roads, large lakes and estuaries.

Take account of tides

The contours dataset also includes mean high and low water boundaries.

Use cases

OS Terrain 50 can be used in conjunction with various Ordnance Survey digital products for analytical, modelling, planning and visual purposes.

These uses enable customers to undertake the following:

  • Asset/site management
  • Signal propagation
  • Environmental analysis
  • High-level development
  • Geological analysis
  • Line of sight planning
  • View shed modelling
  • Using the product as a visual aid

OS Terrain® 50 is an open height dataset of contours with spot heights, breaklines, coastline, lakes, ridges and formlines for Great Britain.


This product is updated annually

Free to use for everyone
Data access
  • Download
Data theme
  • Height
Data structure
  • Vector - DTM grid, Contour lines
Coverage
Great Britain
Scale/resolution
1:50 000
Format
  • GML 3.2 Simple Features
  • ASCII (DTM grid)
  • ESRI Shapefile
  • Vector Tiles
  • GeoPackage
Ordering area
  • All of Great Britain
Publication months
  • July
OS Data Hub plan
  • OS OpenData Plan (FREE)
  • Public Sector Plan
  • Premium Plan