A CSO Frontier Series Output - What is this?
Table 4.1: Spatial data sources | |||
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Type of data | Institution | Data sources | Open access |
National boundaries | Ordnance Survey Ireland | County boundaries | Yes |
CORINE Land Cover | Environmental Protection Agency | Geoportal | Yes |
Article 17 – Range and distribution of Annex I habitats | National Parks and Wildlife Service | https://www.npws.ie/maps-and-data/habitat-and-species-data/article-17 | Yes |
Protected areas (SACs, SPAs, NHAs, pNHAs) | National Parks and Wildlife Service | https://www.npws.ie/maps-and-data/designated-site-data/download-boundary-data | Yes |
Arterial Drainage and District Drainage | Office of Public Works |
Arterial Drainage data - Office of Public Works District Drainage data - Local Authorities |
On request |
Agricultural land use | Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine | Land Parcel Identification System | No |
Water Framework Directive catchment boundaries | Environmental Protection Agency | Geoportal | Yes |
In this publication, we use the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) dataset developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the European Environment Agency (EEA).
The CLC is based on satellite imagery from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 and is enhanced by the EPA with national land use data from a variety of sources, including Coillte and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Six classes of CORINE Land Cover were used in this publication:
Table 4.2: Classes of CORINE Land Cover (descriptions from Uppdated CLC Illistrated Nomenclature Guidelines10) | |||
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Ecosystem | CORINE Class | Description | |
Grasslands | Natural grasslands | Grasslands under no or moderate human influence. Low productivity grasslands. Often situated in areas of rough, uneven ground, steep slopes; frequently including rocky areas or patches of other (semi-)natural vegetation. | |
Pastures | Permanent grassland characterized by agricultural use or strong human disturbance. Floral composition dominated by grasses and influenced by human activity. Typically used for grazing (pastures), or mechanical harvesting of grass (meadows). | ||
Croplands | Complex cultivation patterns | Mosaic of small cultivated land parcels with different cultivation types - annual crops, pasture and/or permanent crops, with scattered houses or gardens. | |
Fruit trees and berry plantations | Cultivated parcels planted with fruit trees and shrubs, intended for fruit production, including nuts. The planting pattern can be by single or mixed fruit species, both in association with permanently grassy surfaces. | ||
Non-irrigated arable land | Cultivated land parcels under rainfed agricultural use for annually harvested non-permanent crops, normally under a crop rotation system, including fallow lands within such crop rotation. Fields with sporadic sprinkler-irrigation with non-permanent devices to support dominant rainfed cultivation are included. | ||
Land principally occupied by agriculture, with significant areas of natural vegetation | Areas principally occupied by agriculture, interspersed with significant natural or semi-natural areas (including forests, shrubs, wetlands, water bodies, mineral outcrops) in a mosaic pattern. |
CORINE Land Cover datasets have a minimum mapping unit of 25 hectares. The classes are high level and do not provide a sub-division by habitat types (i.e. there is no further breakdown into type of grassland or type of crop grown). For further details, refer to CORINE Land Cover nomenclature guidelines.
The CORINE Land Cover dataset can also be used to track changes in land cover over time. However, it has a smaller minimum mapping unit of 5ha compared to the standard land cover dataset, (which maps the spatial extent), which uses a unit of 25ha. This means that the spatial extent shown in Table 2.2 is not directly comparable with the changes in spatial extent shown in Table 2.3, as they are calculated using data at different resolutions.
Figure 2.1 shows the breakdown of broad ecosystem types for the EU27. This data is taken from the Copernicus CORINE Land Cover dashboard. Note that we have recalculated areas for some of the categories based on the definitions used in this publication. The figure on the dashboard of 45% for Agriculture for the EU does not include ‘Natural grasslands’, which at 91,826km2 is just over 2% of the land area of the EU27.
The figures here are comparable with those published by the Agriculture division of the CSO, however there may be some small discrepancies due to differing definitions; in this publication we consider the whole land parcel to be categorised according to the crop description, while agriculture statistics are concerned with the productive area. Note also that we include ‘Temporary grassland’ in the croplands category (Temporary grassland is defined as land used for grazing, hay or silage included as a part of a normal crop rotation, lasting at least one crop year and normally less than 5 years, sown with grass or grass mixtures20).
Under Article 17 of the EU Directive on the Conservation of Habitats, Flora and Fauna (92/43/EEC), the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) reports the status of EU protected habitats and species in Ireland to the European Commission. These data are compiled every six years starting in 2007. They are primarily collated from scientific monitoring projects directly commissioned by NPWS and the responsible Government department. Additional data were used from a variety of organisations, including Local Authorities, the EPA, the National Biodiversity Data Centre and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Article 17 data were used to supplement the spatial extent produced with CORINE Land Cover 2018 dataset. Six habitats from Article 17 – EU Habitats Directive data were reported: Calcareous grassland, Lowland hay meadow, Molinia meadow, Nardus grassland, Hydrophilous tall herb, and Calaminarian grassland. Definitions for all the habitats can be found in the Glossary, and were taken from The Status of EU Protected Habitats and Species in Ireland 201911 published by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Article 17 GIS data are available for download from NPWS here.
Table 4.3: Protected areas | |||
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Acronym | Title | Additional information | |
NHA | Natural Heritage Area | Under the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000, a national network of NHAs was created. It complements the European Natura 2000 (SAC and SPA) network at national level. For more information see NPWS - NHAs. | |
pNHA | proposed Natural Heritage Area | These NHAs have not yet been officially designated but are considered part of the national network of protected areas. For more information see NPWS - NHAs. | |
SAC | Special Area of Conservation | The legal basis is the EU Directive on the Conservation of Habitats, Flora and Fauna (92/43/EEC) . SACs protect certain habitats and species listed under Annex I of the EU Directive. For more information see NPWS - SACs. | |
SPA | Special Protection Area | The legal basis is the EU Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009. In Ireland, SPAs protect listed rare and vulnerable species, regularly occurring migratory species, and wetlands of international importance. For more information see NPWS - SPAs. |
This data is based on the CSO’s Crops and Livestock Survey, which uses Basic Payment Scheme data from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Nitrate concentrations in groundwater higher than 10mg/l NO3 are usually indicative of inputs relating to human activities16. Data on nitrates in groundwater were provided to the CSO by the EPA.
Data on organic farming are compiled by DAFM and submitted to Eurostat. Organic farming as a share of AAU can be found here. Spatial data on organic farming were provided to the CSO by DAFM.
A Livestock Unit (LSU) is a standard measurement unit that allows the aggregation of numbers of livestock across different categories of livestock by assigning weights to different categories. For example, a dairy cow is 1 LSU, while a sheep is 0.1 LSU. For more information see CSO Farm Structure Survey 2016 Background Notes. See Eurostat for data on Livestock Density Index.
The Countryside Bird Survey (CBS) is Ireland’s national monitoring scheme for common and widespread breeding birds. It is funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and is coordinated by BirdWatch Ireland. It has been running since 1998. The Common Farmland Bird Index (CFBI) is based on 18 breeding farmland birds which are monitored by the CBS. Below are some additional important information to be taken into account when interpreting this index.
For further information on the Countryside Bird Survey please see BirdWatch Ireland.
The Irish Soil Information System National Soils Map was developed by Teagasc with support from the EPA. This provides information on a range of soil characteristics, including soil texture. The Irish Soil Information System National Geodatabase was downloaded from the EPA’s Geoportal.
Spatial data on the Arterial Drainage and District Drainage schemes were provided to the CSO by the Office of Public Works.
Data for each of the catchments was accessed on the EPA’s Catchments website.
10. Updated CLC Illustrated Nomenclature Guidelines. (European Environment Agency, 2019).
11. The Status of EU Protected Habitats and Species in Ireland. Volume 1: Summary Overview. (National Parks and Wildlife Service, 2019).
16. Green, S., Martin, S., Gharechelou, S., Cawkwell, F. & Black, K. BRIAR: Biomass Retrieval in Ireland Using Active Remote Sensing. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2019).
20. Farrell, C. et al. Applying the System of Environmental Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) framework at catchment scale to develop ecosystem extent and condition accounts. One Ecosystem 6 (2021).
Go to the next chapter: Glossary and Acronyms
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