5th December 2023

The Northern Ireland Coastal Observatory

The Northern Ireland Coastal Observatory was launched by DAERA on Friday 20^th October.

The Coastal Observatory is a platform that has been created by ESRI Ireland in partnership with DAERA, to collate, display and share coastal data. A range of coastal datasets can be seen on the map viewer, which is hosted on the Observatory, and the datasets can be accessed for further use.

The creation of a Coastal Observatory was an objective of the Northern Ireland Coastal Forum, to facilitate and make available to stakeholders, coastal datasets which are urgently required to inform sustainable management of the coast. Since 2020 DAERA has been addressing the shortfall of scientifically robust baseline data on how the Northern Ireland coastline is changing, and has invested significant money and resource in doing so. Surveys commissioned have utilised multiple methodologies, ranging from LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) surveys of both the coast and nearshore area, the collection of high resolution orthophotography, acquisition of satellite-derived bathymetry data, and detailed analysis of Ordnance Survey maps, historical aerial photographs and geological datasets. All data collected by DAERA has been validated by the UK Hydrographic Office. Data falls under the Open Government License and is freely available to all. The Northern Ireland Coastal Observatory is therefore a platform to disseminate this data and any subsequent analysis to our stakeholders.

On the Coastal Observatory there are a range of coastal datasets available to explore, in either a 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional map viewer. For example, users can access a digital terrain model covering the intertidal area and extending approximately 200 metres landward of the high-water mark available for the entire Northern Ireland coast. Coastal change datasets are also available, including outputs from a Historic Shoreline Analysis project completed by Ulster University. Detailed information is available on each of the datasets and there is also a section where associated reports can be found.

The Coastal Observatory is accessible via the following URL: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/b8454f3d62164518817e4c581b5555c8

Whilst DAERA is exploring options to provide a download facility for the source survey data, the optimised data products are currently available to add to your own ArcGIS Maps and applications in 2 ways:

Via the NI Coastal Observatory, Our Data page. ‘Click to Learn More’ for each dataset to view links to product metadata and access options.
Via the DAERA iHub, search for “Coastal” to return a list of available data products.

While the Northern Ireland Coastal Observatory has now been launched, this is very much just the first phase. Work will continue on developing this platform, increasing functionality, expanding datasets and furthering analysis of evidence collected, allowing informed change analysis and coastal vulnerability assessments to be made.