Ordnance Survey National Grid

The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system (OSGB), also known as British National Grid (BNG),[1][2] is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, distinct from latitude and longitude.

The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in its survey data, and in maps based on those surveys, whether published by the Ordnance Survey or by commercial map producers. Grid references are also commonly quoted in other publications and data sources, such as guide books and government planning documents.

A number of different systems exist that can provide grid references for locations within the British Isles: this article describes the system created solely for Great Britain and its outlying islands (including the Isle of Man); the Irish grid reference system was a similar system created by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland for the island of Ireland. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system (UTM) is used to provide grid references for worldwide locations, and this is the system commonly used for the Channel Islands and Ireland (since 2001). European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), or variants of it.

  1. ^ "OSGB 1936 / British National Grid: EPSG Projection — Spatial Reference". spatialreference.org. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Coordinate systems and projections for beginners". 26 March 2012. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2021.