Atlas Purpose
- Provide a professional and public resource for coastal and inshore marine areas for Ireland;
- Make available maps, data and information on coastal themes;
- Assist professionals in identifying sources of data, information and expertise on the marine environment;
- Offer accessibility to GIS data in the form of searchable metadata and a web GIS;
- Encourage a greater appreciation of Ireland's coastal regions.
Distinguishing Features
- Island-wide, covering the Republic and Northern Ireland;
- Uses Open Source software;
- Single main atlas page is sectioned into panels (map, layers and information);
- Includes spatial data from over 35 organisations.
Target Audience
- General Public;
- Tourists;
- Students;
- Researchers/Scientists;
- NGOs;
- Government/Public Bodies;
- Commercial/Industry;
- Consultancies;
- Coastal/Environmental Managers;
- Decision Makers;
Atlas Design and Usability
- Focus:
- Design:
- Clear navigation and instruction;
- Involved user feedback;
- Access text from maps/maps from text;
- Multiple point(s) of access to map/data;
- Map Page:
- View unlimited layers
- View data independently/by theme;.
- Combined legend & layer lists
- Links to internal/external pages
- Documentation:
- Thematic text;
- Metadata:
- Database
- Multiple format(s);
- Illustrations, images and charts
- Help page(s);
- Tutorial;
- Standards:
- Metadata standards: ISO 19xxx;
- Other:
Technology Used
- Mapping Software:
- Data Storage:
- Database Management System:
- Server Operating System
- Red Hat Linux Apache Web Server
- Other
- Apache Web Server;
- ArcGIS 9 used for data processing
Functionality/Tools Available
- Level:
- Search Capability:
- Other:
- Advanced metadata search;
- MIDA InfoPort: a comprehensive guide to information on coastal and marine themes and issues;
- PDF/Printable maps not possible due to data licensing issues..
- Mapping Tools:
- Zoom, recentre and full extent;
- Identify features;
- Layer list control;
- View by theme;
- Download geospatial data;
Data/Cartographic Information Included
- Geographic Area: Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (UK)
- Number of Datasets: >140
- Topics:
- Physical Environment;
- Coastal Habitats;
- Imagery;
- Biology;
- Management;
- Human Impact;
- Conservation;
- Environmental Monitoring;
- Infrastructure;
- Industry;
- Culture & Heritage;
- Natural Resources;
- Fisheries, Aquaculture & Agriculture;
- Tourism & Recreation;
Data Issues
- IPR/Cost:
- Cost-prohibitive data (base/other);
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR);
- Data use restrictions;
- Accessibility:
- Data sourcing and acquisition;
- Poorly managed, inaccessible data;
- Limited GIS-ready data;
- Distributed network not yet feasible;
- Data retrieval speed;
- Quality:
- Variable/inconsistent data quality;
- Inappropriate data scales;
- Incomparable regional datasets;
- Poor/non-existent metadata;
- Management:
- Data management plan development;
- Balance of development and updates;
- Regularity of data updates;
- Manual upload of data to atlas;
- Resources to source/acquire data;
- Other:
- Time required to source and acquire data;
- Lack of data catalogues;
- Memorandum of Understanding is agreed with each data contributor..
Other Challenges
- Funding for site maintenance;
- Designing simple, intuitive and informative web interface;
- Content balance of science and information;
- Product promotion;
- Other:
- Designing the atlas interface to provide access to everything in a single window;
- Developing a flexible data model.
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