FAQ


Do you have questions about Spatial NI or using our platform?

Before contacting us you might want to look through the questions and answers in this section.


Spatial NI is Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland’s web mapping platform.

It provides you with access to not only Ordnance Survey’s authoritative mapping data, but other authoritative geospatial information from multiple providers across the public and private sectors.

Spatial NI was created in 2007 from the need to comply with the European Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) Directive.

Since its launch, Spatial NI has since undergone a series of enhancements to improve accessibility to and use of authoritative spatial data in Northern Ireland.

The Spatial NI NIMA portal is a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) available to all NIMA participants in Northern Ireland.

It is a "one stop shop" for finding spatial data and facilitates the use of this data in both web applications and desktop software.

Functionality available includes:

  • The ability to view and interrogate OSNI and other geospatial information in a web application
  • The ability to search our catalogue of services and view the service metadata
  • The ability to add services to ArcGIS Pro and complete complex spatial analysis

Access to the Spatial NI NIMA Portal is available to all NIMA participants. A full list of NIMA participants is available to view on the Portal Support Site.

The Spatial NI platform provides access to a range of authoritative spatial data for Northern Ireland.

You can view this information in our map viewer or add the services to desktop GIS software for further analysis.

Spatial NI NIMA Portal is free to use for NIMA participants, but subject to our published use policy.

As a minimum, you will need an internet browser for accessing the portal and map viewer. In order to complete more detailed analysis you will need to have ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Pro.

Spatial NI is about making spatial data easier to find, use and share. It provides users with a capability to “mash up” information on a map and to interrogate the data based on location.

As part of our platform monitoring, we use your IP address to monitor your use of the site. This is done through use of a third party data processor.

‘Spatial NI for INSPIRE’, a component of the Spatial NI platform has been developed by Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland as a shared resource to facilitate the public sector meeting the obligations of the INSPIRE Directive.


The Spatial NI NIMA portal is configured to provide a single sign-on experience for all NIMA users. This is made possible by using technology called Active Directory Federated Services (ADFS).

For Northern Ireland Civil Servants, this has already been configured for you.

For other NIMA participants, you need to have an instance of ADFS on your own infrastructure. Trust then needs to be established between your infrastructure and the Spatial NI platform. If you would like to know more on how to configure this access, email us for advice.

The Spatial NI NIMA Portal is configured to only authenticate users via ADFS. If your organisation doesn't have ADFS, you can access Spatial NI services via your organisational AGOL account. Check out our guidance documentation for steps on how to do this.

The Spatial NI NIMA Portal provides you with the ability to search our data catalogue, view content on a map using our map viewer or complete more detailed GIS analysis using desktop based software. Check out our help guides for more information on how to use the portal.

Yes. An account will be generated for you automatically the first time you log in from your work computer. You will only be able to do this if your organisation has been setup to use ADFS.

To get the best results when using Spatial NI, we recommend you use the latest version of browser available.

On 03/04/2019 these were:

Browser Latest Version
Chrome 73.0.3683.86
Firefox 66.0.2
Edge 44.17763.1.0
Safari 12.1
Opera 58.0.3135.127

Please note that Spatial NI does not support the use of Internet Explorer.

The Spatial NI platform only uses the HTTPS protocol for all traffic to and from our applications. Also, Spatial NI is fully accredited and complies with all NCSC and HMG IA guidelines and procedures.

Yes. The portal has been designed to be integrated with ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap. These desktop software packages can be used as clients to leverage the web services provided by Spatial NI via the NIMA Portal.

No you don't need any specialised GIS software to use the NIMA Portal. You can browse and interrogate services using your web browser.


In the Spatial NI map viewer,

  • The basemap is updated on a weekly basis from the most up-to-date topographic data available.
  • The aerial imagery is updated once a series of new images have been processed by our OSNI flying team.
  • Other non OSNI data available on Spatial NI is maintained by the data owner and further information can be found in the related metadata.

The OSNI data available is hosted and maintained by Spatial NI.

Some data from other providers is hosted by Spatial NI under agreement from the data owner. However, updates to this are completed by the Spatial NI team on a schedule agreed with the data owner.

Some data from other providers is streamed via a web service from their infrastructure. In this scenario, the maintenance of the data rests with the data owner.

The Spatial NI platform makes available web services hosted by both Spatial NI and other providers. If you experience an issue using any of these services, please contact us and we will investigate.

No. Representations of roads, tracks and footpaths on the Spatial NI basemap is not evidence of a public right of way. OSNI topographic data and maps are designed to show the extent of physical features on land. As a result, this can include both public and private roads, tracks and footpaths.

If there is data you would like to see on Spatial NI which is not currently available, please contact us and we will investigate your request with the data owner.

Errors in the OSNI data available on Spatial NI should be reported to us in writing via email.

Please include the following:

  • As much detail as possible on the error
  • The coordinates of the location
  • An annotated screenshot if possible

We will pass this information on to the relevant OSNI team for investigation.

Errors in other datasets should be reported to the dataset owner through the contact information available in the relevant metadata.