EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 Topic Box 5.7 Some Recent Developments in Mapping Technology Significant improvements have been made in how geographical information systems and satellite imagery are used to map land cover. Continued research in this area will help improve our understanding of soils and land cover, as well as monitoring changes that occur. One recent development arising from EPA-funded research was the launch of the Environmental Sensitivity Mapping Webtool in 2019. It helps planners highlight areas that are more environmentally sensitive, to inform better planning decisions and environmental assessments. It brings together over 100 datasets and allows users to create plan- specific environmental sensitivity maps. These maps can help identify suitable development locations, while also protecting the environment. It is available at www.enviromap.ie. Some other relevant research in this area is shown below in Table 5.3. Table 5.3 Some soils and landcover online resources Soils map of Ireland 13 (Teagasc – EPA) Soil information to inform land management activities Irish wetlands mapping project 14 Information on the location and status of wetlands Bird sensitivity mapping for wind energy developments 15 (Birdwatch Ireland) Assists in locating wind energy developments, to minimise impacts on birds Flood maps 16 (Office of Public Works) Provides flood maps to inform land use planning Catchments.ie 17 (EPA) Information on and stories about our water catchments 13 http://gis.teagasc.ie/soils/ 14 http://www.wetlandsurveysireland.com/wetlands/map-of-irish- wetlands--/index.html 15 https://www.birdwatchireland.ie/OurWork/PolicyAdvocacy/ BirdSensitivityMapping/tabid/1312/Default.aspx 16 http://www.floodinfo.ie/ 17 https://www.catchments.ie/ Soils and Land Cover: EPA Research Programme 2014-2020 Since 2016, the EPA has funded 40 new research projects relevant to the Soils and Land Cover area; a commitment of €6.5 million. These projects were funded under the Sustainability (Natural Capital), Water and Climate Pillars of the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020. During 2020 several new EPA research reports have been published that are relevant to the topics covered in this chapter. They include the two research reports mentioned in Table 5.4 below. All reports are available on the research pages of the EPA website. 18 These EPA-funded projects include research on: n habitat mapping, assessment and monitoring using high-resolution imagery n Irish natural capital accounting n peatlands and n planning. Table 5.4  Some recent EPA-funded research projects on soils, land cover and land use n Ecohydrology, Greenhouse Gas Dynamics and Restoration Guidelines for Degraded Raised Bogs (Regan et al. , 2020) n Evaluating the Suitability of the Land Parcel Identification System for Assessing Land Use and Land Use Change-Related Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Zimmerman et al. , 2020) n TaLAM: Mapping land cover in lowlands and uplands with satellite imagery (Cawkwell et al. , 2018) n SoilC – feasibility of grassland soil carbon survey (Kiely et al. , 2017) n Mapping and monitoring land cover, use and change (Cawkwell et al. , 2017) n 21st century deforestation in Ireland (Devaney et al. , 2017) n Irish soil information system: soil property maps (Creamer et al. , 2016) n Soil status and protection (Bampa et al. , 2016) 18 www.epa.ie/researchandeducation/research/researchpublications/ researchreports/ 120