Thinking globally and acting locally has been made a little easier by the development of a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mapping application called My Local Environment or Timpeall an Ti.
Launched by Mr Phil Hogan T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and Ms Laura Burke, Director General, Environmental Protection Agency, My local environment provides easy access to information about the environment close to where people live, work or play.
Speaking at the launch, Ms Laura Burke, Director General EPA, said, My Local Environment is the latest in a number of tools developed by the EPA to make environmental data more accessible, and more importantly to frame it in a local setting. We hope that the addition of this new service will make it even easier to access live data and learn more about the areas of Ireland’s environment in which people have an interest.
In launching the new service, Minister Hogan commented, I am delighted to see the EPA providing tools that people can use to find out about the quality of their local environment. While there is a huge amount of information available about the environment – on the EPA’s and other websites – it is important that people can easily access information about issues like their local air and water quality. I can see this new service being widely used in schools by students working on environment-related projects and also by tourists who might wish to get information about the local environment in which they are staying.
Laura Burke concluded, The EPA has an important role to play as an environmental data provider. We understand that part of this role is to make data as easy to access and understand as possible. My Local Environment is accessible via the EPA website and sits with other map tools, such as Splash and EPA Maps, in a suite of services that we are constantly reviewing and improving. We always welcome feedback from users of our website on how we can improve the services we offer and would welcome people’s comments about My Local Environment.
My Local Environment (Timpeall an Ti) can be accessed from the EPA homepage, or via gis.epa.ie/myenvironment#/search.
Information is available about the following:
What Air Quality Stations are near me?
Provides a list of local Air Monitoring Sites; a user can click on each site to view the current air quality and any related information on the Air Quality Index for Health.
What water features are near me?
Provides a list of local sites e.g. bathing water, rivers, coastal, groundwater etc. and indicates their status – Bathing Water Status; River Status; Coastal Status; Transitional Status; Groundwater Status.
What EPA Regulated Activities are near me?
Provides a list of all licensed sites (Licensed IPPC Facilities, Licensed Waste Facilities, Dump Site Boundaries); by clicking on further information a user can access PDF documents available online including:
- All licences granted to-date.
- Applications received by the EPA since 1 December 2004.
- A limited number of applications received by the EPA before December 2004.
- Annual Environmental Reports for 2008 onwards.
What Historic Mines are near me?
Users can click the hyperlink to see the overview report that was done for each mine site.
What is my soil type; subsoil type; landcover class?
Examples: “Your soil type is Man made” “Your subsoil type is Man made” “The Corine 2006 Landcover map classes your location as Discontinuous urban fabric. Click the hyperlinks to see pop up boxes.
What is my Coal Restricted area type?
Example: You are in a coal restricted area type Coal Restricted Area. Click the hyperlink to see a pop up box.
What is my Air Zone type?
Example: “You are in Air Zone type x Conurbation.” Click the hyperlink to see a pop up box.
What is my River catchment area?
Example: “You are in the river catchment area x.” Click the hyperlink to see a pop up box.
What is my River Basin District?
Example: “You are in Eastern River Basin District.” Click the hyperlink to see a pop up box.
What is my aquifer type and aquifer vulnerability?
Example: “Your aquifer type is Ll.” “Your aquifer vulnerability is M.”
Source: Envirocentre.ie – Ireland’s Environment Starts in Your Backyard
