The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has responsibility for the designation, monitoring, reporting and management of Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs) that are that are designated under The Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002.
DAERA aims to carry out a rolling programme of ASSI feature monitoring and reporting every six years in support of The Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations 1995 (Northern Ireland) (as amended), The Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002, and The Marine Act (Northern Ireland) 2013.
Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) guidance states that the features that are to be monitored are the interest features for which the site has been notified or designated.
They include habitat types, species and earth science features, as well as complex features such as habitat mosaics and species assemblages.
Each interest feature must be identified, monitored, assessed and reported upon separately.
Further Assessment of Otter and Badger Potential Along the Amenity Path Proposed Along the Shannon Erne Waterway Between Ballyconnell and Ballyheady Bridge, County Cavan
Wildfires have always been a part of nature. Unfortunately, large-scale and more intense wildfires are becoming increasingly common and have a devastating impact on health & safety, ecological balance and cultural & socio-economic well-being. They also add to climate change. Therefore, a holistic wildfire management approach is needed.
The prevention of wildfires and the level of readiness against one might be the most important aspect of wildfire management, since it is better to avoid than to cure. In most cases currently, the observation of wildfire sensitive areas is monitored by a combination of cameras and foresters/park rangers. While this already provides some level of anticipation against wildfires, it has its shortcomings:
data provided by foresters and park rangers are limited to human capabilities and not continuously monitored;
observation data is challenging to share between stakeholders, so valuable input on forecasting models is lost;
installed cameras still need to be monitored by an operator in order to detect a wildfire.
In this webinar, we looked at how technology can help prevent wildfires and relieve some of the burden of those who work in Protected Areas. It was organised together with Senhive.
EFFIS: Satellite-based risk management
By Jesús San-Miguel-Ayanz – Director European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) Programme – Joint Research Centre (JRC) Disaster Risk Management Unit, Italy.
Jesús has a PhD and MSc in Wildland Information Science, with majors in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems from the Forestry Department at the University of California-Berkeley, U.S.A. He also has a Forest Engineering Degree from the Polytechnic University, Madrid, Spain. Jesus works at the European Commission Joint Research Centre and coordinates and leads the development of the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) and the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS). His publication list is available here.
This webinar also gave us a chance to acquire more information about the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). It was established by the European Commission (EC) in collaboration with the national fire administrations to support the services in charge of the protection of forests against fires in the EU and neighbouring countries. EFFIS is supported by a network of experts from 43 countries and provides satellite-based information on the current fire season in Europe and in the Mediterranean area.
This includes today’s meteorological fire danger maps and forecasts up to 9 days, daily updated maps of hot spots (active fires) and fire perimeters.
Thomas started his career as a telecommunications architect. In 2008, he started his own company by providing IT architecture services to several Fortune 100 companies. His expertise and drive resulted, among others, in the management & design of the Belgian Antarctic station. This eventually inspired him to start a company specialised in remote sensing and led to the creation of Senhive.
Sen-Eye is a camera-based autonomous wildfire detection system. It uses AI to autonomously detect wildfires and notify involved stakeholders. Sen-Eye can be installed on any type of IP camera and – by fusing EFFIS satellite data with smart power management – it can be deployed in off-grid areas where no power nor connectivity is at hand.
An annual compendium which reports on a range of environmental indicators and provides links to government strategies.
This report contains environmental indicators covering seven key themes: Public Attitudes, Climate Change, Air, Water and Marine, Biodiversity and Land, Waste and Historic Environment.
Water and Marine
Key points in this chapter: • Of the twenty-five inshore coastal waterbodies delineated in Northern Ireland, 13 (52 per cent) have been assessed at good or better ecological condition. • In 2021 soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) was measured at 93 surveillance rivers across Northern Ireland giving an average concentration of 0.071 mg/l of phosphorus per litre of water. This was 0.024 mg/l more than the lowest figure reported in this time series, 0.047 mg/l in 2012. • Water pollution incidents are investigated by Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA). In 2021 there were 1,893 incidents reported to NIEA or discovered by NIEA during inspections, of which 871 (46 per cent) were substantiated (confirmed) as having an impact on the water quality of the receiving waterway. Of these, 14 per cent were considered to be of High or Medium Severity. • Five out of nine designated shellfish water protected areas (SWPAs) complied with the Water Framework Directive guideline E. Coli standard in Shellfish Flesh in 2021.
Long-term seasonal trend analysis shows that the monthly trends in average nitrate concentrations in rivers in Northern Ireland are predominantly decreasing or stable over the 28-year period, 1992-2019, which may be attributed to the measures implemented through the Nutrient Action Programme.
Farming (29 per cent), accounted for the largest proportion of substantiated pollution incidents investigated
Under the AIE Regs to request the following dataset OEE Waste Crime Project Sites
Resource identifier is AM.IE.EPA.WST_IllegalWasteSites
This is a points dataset of locations logged in Excel by Local Authorities in the OEE waste crime project. The Excel, held by OEE, has all the locations logged by LA’s.
Data refused:
Site Location address
Location
Status of Enforcement Action
Shp file (GIS mapping data)
Refusal to release mapping data based on:
The factors in favour of withholding this information are: • Right to privacy • Right to privacy of third parties • Public Interest in protecting the ability of public bodies to carry out their functions and to be able to communicate effectively.
The following link (as above) is a dataset that “represents the site locations of Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems where inspections have been carried out under the National Inspection Plan.
These locations have been captured by Local Authority Inspectors as part of the process of logging inspection details within the Domestic Waste Water Application. My understanding is the dataset is used by EPA to create various pdf reports but the actual GIS data does not appear to be in the public domain.
Statement on the dataset suggests that the locations in this dataset are captured using an integrated map part within the Domestic Waste Water Application whereby the Inspector selects the location on the map. Alternatively, the Inspector can enter the coordinates manually at which point the application then displays the location on the map for verification.
The factors in favour of withholding this information are: • Right to privacy • Right to privacy of third parties • Public Interest in protecting the ability of public bodies to carry out their functions and to be able to communicate effectively.
Request for Internal Review: based on the following submissions
environmental data should be published by default, particularly locations of pollution inspections
public interest in an open and transparent national septic tank inspection regime
adjoining properties have a right to know, as could adversely impact their lands, water supplies, farm payments etc
location of environmental hazards is absolutely core to AIE process (threats to human health and safety)
EPA approach to redacting environmental enforcement data undermines the local authority process of enforcement inspections
