Combined Authorities: Digital Vector Boundaries for England

Five distinct resolution levels, from full to ultra-generalized, are provided for each boundary version, with file sizes ranging from 15 KB to 2 MB. These digital vector boundaries represent Combined Authorities in England, with snapshots from April 2015, June 2016, and March 2017. Boundaries are available both at the full extent of the realm and clipped to the Mean High Water coastline mark.

Use Cases

• Cartographic visualization at different scales based on the five available boundary resolutions.
• Spatial analysis of Combined Authority jurisdictions using the full-extent or coastline-clipped boundaries.
• Integrating administrative boundaries into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) via the provided ArcGIS REST services.

Strengths

• Contains multiple boundary versions (April 2015, June 2016, March 2017), offering temporal comparison.
• Provides five specific geometric resolutions for each version, with precise file sizes listed (e.g., 18 KB to 2 MB).
• Cross-platform presence on a single source indicates stable, official data from the Office for National Statistics.

Limitations

• Column names and the exact number of geographic features (rows) are not specified in the provided metadata.
• The 'last updated' metadata field (2026-07-08) appears to be a platform timestamp and conflicts with the actual data vintage (2015-2017).
• Descriptions are repetitive across entries, suggesting sparse, templated metadata rather than detailed documentation.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Ordnance Survey (Intellectual Property Rights holders).

Collection Method

Likely digitized and maintained by the ONS as part of national geographic data services.

Time Range

April 2015 to March 2017

Freshness

The underlying data is from March 2017, which is the most recent snapshot described.

Geography

Combined Authorities in England.