UK Contour Lines

A complete pipeline for generating, serving, and visualizing high-resolution vector contour lines for the United Kingdom using Copernicus Global DEM data.

A development map tile server is available the supplies two vector tile sets (generated using this pipeline):

• Contour lines (https://map-tiles.hz-nbg1.destructuring-bind.org/styles/uk_contours/style.json)
• UK Boundary (https://map-tiles.hz-nbg1.destructuring-bind.org/styles/uk_boundary/style.json)

Please don't abuse this service: it is intended for light use only. Host the tiles yourself instead - re-generate them using this pipeline, or contact me and I can supply the resultant uk_contours.mbtiles or uk_boundary.mbtiles files.

Features

• High Precision: Derived from Copernicus GLO-30 (30m resolution) digital elevation model.
• Vector-Based: Smooth rendering at any zoom level using MapLibre GL.
• Dynamic Styling: Includes index lines every 50m and elevation labels.
• Self-Hosted: Full Docker-based serving stack using TileServer GL.
• Automated Workflow: Clean Makefile for data processing and server management.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following tools installed:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install gdal tippecanoe make

# Docker (for serving)
brew install --cask docker

Quick Start

1. Build the Pipeline

The entire data processing pipeline is automated. This will fetch tile URLs, build a virtual mosaic, generate contours, and encode them into optimized vector tiles (zooms 6-14).

make all

2. Serve the Map

Run TileServer GL via Docker to host the MBTiles and styles.

make serve

3. Visualize

Simply open demo.html in your browser. The viewer includes:

• Navigation Controls: Zoom and rotation buttons.
• Scale Bar: Metric scale indicator.
• GPU Rendering: Fast, GPU-accelerated visualization via MapLibre GL JS.

Technical Stack

• Data Source: Copernicus GLO-30 (Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs).
• Processing:
  • GDAL: Virtual raster handling and contour generation.
  • Tippecanoe: Building optimized vector tiles (Minimum zoom 6).
• Automation: GNU Make for dependency-aware build steps.
• Server: TileServer GL (Docker).
• Frontend: MapLibre GL JS.

Styling Logic

The provided style (data/styles/contours/style.json) implements:

• Standard Lines: Light brown lines every 10m.
• Index Lines: Darker, thicker lines every 50m.
• Labels: Elevation text (e.g., "250m") automatically placed along index lines.

Attribution & License

Software is provided under the MIT License.

This dataset was derived/produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved

UK boundary GeoJSON sourced from: https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Countries_December_2023_Boundaries_UK_BGC/FeatureServer/0/query?outFields=*&where=1%3D1&f=geojson