Open spaces

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Parks, gardens, woods, heaths and beaches by name, how green every hexagon is, countryside included, and which open spaces each one holds.

Questions this page answers

• Which parks are near here, largest first?
• Where are the playgrounds?
• How green is this rural area?

Open spaces are Overture's land and land-use areas (overture); green cover is Overture's satellite land cover (overture_land_cover) or, in a hexagon where they show more green, the parks, gardens, grass and woods those areas map, which the satellite misses in towns. /v1/catalog/gb names both in source_ids and carries updated_at, the date they were last loaded. Whether a home is in a National Park is a boundary: /v1/boundaries?at= on Boundaries.

Request headers

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Named open spaces

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Open spaces touching the location you give, public by default: largest first with sort=-area_m2, nearest first with near, otherwise by id. A space inside a bigger one is folded into it, worked out from the real outlines, and left out whenever the bigger one passes class and access, even where the bigger one does not touch the location: Avenue Gardens lies inside The Regent's Park, so class=garden lists it and a list of every kind does not. POST /v1/open-spaces takes the same fields as JSON, for long cell lists (Long requests).

Parks and open spaces in a box

The 34 open spaces in a box around Regent's Park, largest first, with their hexagons.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/open-spaces?bbox=51.518,-0.172,51.540,-0.140&sort=-area_m2&include=cells"

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "os_gb_c70107ff-da5c-321d-8059-aa8574aadf80",
      "name": "The Regent's Park",
      "class": "park",
      "access": "public",
      "area_m2": 1175647,
      "lat": 51.53011,
      "lng": -0.15377,
      "cell": "89195da4887ffff",
      "cell_count": 13,
      "cells_in_search": 13,
      "area_in_search_m2": 1175647,
      "cells": {
        "in_search": [
          "89195da4817ffff",
          "89195da4883ffff",
          "89195da4887ffff",
          "89195da488bffff",
          "89195da488fffff",
          "… 8 more"
        ],
        "outside": []
      }
    },
    "… 33 more rows"
  ],
  "next_cursor": null
}

The big ones near here

min_area_m2=50000 keeps open spaces of 5 hectares or more: here only The Regent's Park. The box covers 7 of its 13 hexagons, so area_in_search_m2 is 7/13 of its 117.6 ha. Proximity answers the same question by walking time.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/open-spaces?bbox=51.5153,-0.1525,51.5423,-0.1093&min_area_m2=50000&sort=-area_m2&include=cells"

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "os_gb_c70107ff-da5c-321d-8059-aa8574aadf80",
      "name": "The Regent's Park",
      "class": "park",
      "access": "public",
      "area_m2": 1175647,
      "lat": 51.53011,
      "lng": -0.15377,
      "cell": "89195da4887ffff",
      "cell_count": 13,
      "cells_in_search": 7,
      "area_in_search_m2": 633041,
      "cells": {
        "in_search": [
          "89195da4887ffff",
          "89195da4897ffff",
          "89195da48a3ffff",
          "89195da48b3ffff",
          "89195da48b7ffff",
          "… 2 more"
        ],
        "outside": [
          "89195da4817ffff",
          "89195da4883ffff",
          "89195da488bffff",
          "89195da488fffff",
          "89195da48bbffff",
          "… 1 more"
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "next_cursor": null
}

Parameters

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Also takes Where: near, radius_m, bbox, cells, at · Paging: limit, cursor · Output: format · Long requests: the POST body.

Each row: id (os_gb_…), name (null for an unnamed space), class, access, area_m2 (its whole size, m²), lat, lng, cell (the hexagon holding it), cell_count (its hexagons), cells_in_search (how many of them the location covers) and area_in_search_m2 (area_m2 times the share of its hexagons the location covers, m²); distance_m with near, to the space's lat, lng; cells with include=cells.

Errors

… and every Where and Paging code.

One open space

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One open space by id, with parent: the space it is folded into, or null.

One open space

The Regent's Park. include=cells adds its 13 hexagons.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/open-spaces/os_gb_c70107ff-da5c-321d-8059-aa8574aadf80?include=cells"

{
  "id": "os_gb_c70107ff-da5c-321d-8059-aa8574aadf80",
  "name": "The Regent's Park",
  "class": "park",
  "access": "public",
  "area_m2": 1175647,
  "lat": 51.53011,
  "lng": -0.15377,
  "cell": "89195da4887ffff",
  "parent": null,
  "cells": [
    "89195da4817ffff",
    "89195da4883ffff",
    "89195da4887ffff",
    "89195da488bffff",
    "89195da488fffff",
    "… 8 more"
  ]
}

Parameters

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Each row: the list row without its hexagon counts, plus parent, the id of the space it is folded into or null; cells with include=cells.

Errors

Open space per hexagon

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How green each hexagon is and which open spaces are in it, or one total row for everything you send with group_by=all. Every hexagon of the location comes back, 0 and an empty list where there is none: in the order sent with cells, otherwise by cell id. Resolution 9 only; a group_by=all total also takes coarser ids. POST /v1/open-spaces/cells takes the same fields as JSON, for long cell lists (Long requests).

Open spaces per cell

The 55 hexagons of the box around Regent's Park, 30 of them holding open space: every row names its open spaces. A hexagon can be green with none: the first one here is 37% trees.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/open-spaces/cells?bbox=51.518,-0.172,51.540,-0.140"

{
  "resolution": 9,
  "results": [
    {
      "cell": "89195da4803ffff",
      "open_space_m2": 0,
      "green_m2": 34758,
      "green_share": 0.369,
      "cover": {
        "trees": 0.369,
        "shrub": 0,
        "grass": 0,
        "crops": 0,
        "wetland": 0,
        "built": 0.631
      },
      "open_space_count": 0,
      "open_spaces": []
    },
    "… 54 more rows"
  ],
  "next_cursor": null
}

Open spaces for a list of cells

Hexagons you choose, in the order sent.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/open-spaces/cells?cells=89195da4d03ffff,89195da4d07ffff,89195da4d0bffff,89195da4d0fffff,89195da4d13ffff,89195da4d17ffff,89195da4d1bffff"

{
  "resolution": 9,
  "results": [
    {
      "cell": "89195da4d03ffff",
      "open_space_m2": 2286,
      "green_m2": 2598,
      "green_share": 0.028,
      "cover": {
        "trees": 0,
        "shrub": 0,
        "grass": 0.028,
        "crops": 0,
        "wetland": 0,
        "built": 0.972
      },
      "open_space_count": 1,
      "open_spaces": [
        {
          "id": "os_gb_b64f90ef-0a32-36ee-8c41-f06baf5f920e",
          "name": "Catholic Central Library Gardens",
          "class": "park",
          "access": "public",
          "area_m2": 2286
        }
      ]
    },
    "… 6 more rows"
  ],
  "next_cursor": null
}

Only some kinds of open space

class=playground counts and lists playgrounds only: 7 of the box's 55 hexagons hold one of its 6 playgrounds.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/open-spaces/cells?bbox=51.518,-0.172,51.540,-0.140&class=playground"

{
  "class": [
    "playground"
  ],
  "resolution": 9,
  "results": [
    {
      "cell": "89195da4803ffff",
      "open_space_m2": 0,
      "green_m2": 34758,
      "green_share": 0.369,
      "cover": {
        "trees": 0.369,
        "shrub": 0,
        "grass": 0,
        "crops": 0,
        "wetland": 0,
        "built": 0.631
      },
      "open_space_count": 0,
      "open_spaces": []
    },
    "… 54 more rows"
  ],
  "next_cursor": null
}

Countryside: green, but no park

The hexagons of two real postcodes (at= finds one from a point). GU26 6JA in Grayshott is all trees with no open space mapped; SP6 2BQ in Woodgreen sits on Woodgreen Common, a heath. cover takes built, and green wherever the map shows less, from satellite land cover, so fields and woods count where nothing is named. SP6 2BQ is in the New Forest National Park, a boundary, not open space: towns sit inside too.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/open-spaces/cells?cells=891959969abffff,89195956d1bffff"

{
  "resolution": 9,
  "results": [
    {
      "cell": "891959969abffff",
      "open_space_m2": 0,
      "green_m2": 95442,
      "green_share": 1,
      "cover": {
        "trees": 1,
        "shrub": 0,
        "grass": 0,
        "crops": 0,
        "wetland": 0,
        "built": 0
      },
      "open_space_count": 0,
      "open_spaces": []
    },
    "… 1 more row"
  ],
  "next_cursor": null
}

What counts as green

Three meanings of green, never mixed, as /v1/catalog/gb publishes them: green cover, open space, and designations, served as boundaries because towns sit inside them.

curl -H "X-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID" -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_APP_KEY" \
  "https://data.traveltimeapp.com/v1/catalog/gb"

{
  "results": [
    "… 8 datasets",
    {
      "id": "open-spaces",
      "…": "…",
      "definitions": {
        "green_cover": {
          "meaning": "anything growing, seen from satellite or mapped as a park, garden, grass or wood",
          "…": "…"
        },
        "open_space": {
          "meaning": "outdoor land the public can walk into for free",
          "public": ["forest", "wood", "beach", "sand", "dune", "wetland", "heath", "… 13 more"],
          "restricted": ["cemetery", "grave_yard", "zoo", "camp_site"],
          "totals": "open_space_m2 counts public only"
        },
        "designations": {
          "meaning": "protected countryside; towns sit inside them, so never counted as open space",
          "served_as": "boundaries of type national_park and national_landscape: /boundaries?at=…"
        }
      }
    },
    "… 1 more"
  ],
  "…": "…"
}

Parameters

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Also takes Where: near, radius_m, bbox, cells, at · Per-hexagon routes: group_by (cell or all) · Paging: limit, cursor · Output: format · Long requests: the POST body.

Each row: cell (or cell_count in the total), open_space_m2 (public open space in the hexagon, m², each space's size spread evenly over its hexagons), green_m2 (green cover, m²), green_share and cover (trees, shrub, grass, crops, wetland, built: shares of the hexagon, 0–1; green_share is all but built), open_space_count and open_spaces: up to 5, biggest first, each {id, name, class, access, area_m2} at its whole size; a folded space shows as the one it is folded into.

Rollup: sum for m² and cell_count, area_weighted_mean for green_share and cover, distinct for open_space_count, none for open_spaces (left out of totals).

Errors

… and every Where, Per-hexagon routes and Paging code.