Alternate title

National Survey of Native Woodlands

Date (Publication)

2010-01-14T00:00:00

Citation identifier

https://data.gov.ie/dataset/ / National-survey-of-native-woodlands-2003-2008

Purpose

It was beyond the scope and resources of this project to conduct a comprehensive survey of ancient woodland in Ireland. Hence, the overall objective was instead to identify resources and develop a protocol for the identification of ancient woodland and to initialise a national inventory. This will provide a formal framework for future studies in ancient woodland. The aims of this project were therefore to:

1. Investigate the historical records available in the Republic of Ireland which can provide an assessment of woodland longevity.

2. Collate available information from previous research into ancient woodlands in Ireland.

3. Research through desk-based work and fieldwork a selection of woodland sites from across the country.

4. Produce a National Ancient and Long-established Woodland Inventory in the form of a GIS data layer showing the extent and distribution of researched sites.

5. Produce a preliminary list of ancient and long-established woodland vascular plant indicators for the Republic of Ireland and identify other pertinent features associated with these woodlands.

Status

Completed

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie	Point of contact

Maintenance and update frequency

As needed

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

• Habitats and biotopes

GEMET - Concepts, version 3.1

• habitat, biodiversity, woodland ecosystem,

National Parks and Wildlife Service

• National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, species, habitat protection, heritage, National Biodiversity Plan

ISO 3166

• Ireland

Use limitation

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints

Other restrictions

Other constraints

Copyright Government of Ireland. This dataset was created by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This copyright material is licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Spatial representation type

Vector

Denominator

10560

Language

English

Character set

UTF8

Topic category

• Environment
• Biota

Reference system identifier

EPSG / https://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/29903

EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset EPSG 2009-11-25

Distribution format

Name	Version
Esri shapefile	v10.x

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie.ie	Point of contact

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
application/zip	https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/general/nsnw.zip	Zip file containing shapefiles download

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
text/html	https://dahg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?appid=24b1508d044e4d3d80bf107f70f33ee9	ESRI Web application

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
text/pdf	https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/general/nsnw-vol-1.pdf

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Statement

Process steps: NSNW_Woodland_Habitats shapefile submitted to NPWS (Perrin et al. 2008) was edited following consultation with field maps, site synopses and other information to produce the accurate digitised site boundaries held in this shapefile.

The NSNW_Woodland_Habitats shapefile was itself based partly on information from the FIPS database (FIPS, 1998).

Associated attribute data are as follows [text in square brackets

refers to the actual field name in the attributes table]:

- [FID] = Unique polygon ID.

- [Shape] = Attribute type (always Polygon for this shapefile).

- [UNIQUE_DIS] = Redundant field, relevant to a previous FIPS analysis in 2003; recommend

this be deleted from this shapefile.

- [COUNT] = Number of polygons in site.

- [SITE_CODE] = NSNW Site number.

- [COUNTY] = Name(s) of County in which site (NOT POLYGON) is located.

- [H_FOSSCODE] = Level 3 habitat code in Fossitt (2000); may contain several habitats, separated by “/”, if habitats occur as a mosaic (this information derived primarily from field map and relevé data).

- [H_FOSSDESC] = Full description of Fossitt (2000) habitat code.

- [H_EU_CODE] = Habitats Directive (Annex I) woodland habitat code, if applicable (this

information is derived from the Woodland_Releves_2010 shapefile – see below). Two other

values possible:

1) A dash “-“if definitely not Annex I woodland (as determined from relevé);

2) ND if Annex status is not determined (due to insufficient data, e.g. no relevé).

- [H_EU_DESC] = Habitats Directive description, if applicable. Two other values possible:

1) Not Determined (see above);

2) Non-Annex.

- [NSNW_CODE] = NSNW vegetation type code, determined by analysis of relevés in Perrin et

al. (2008).

- [NSNW_DESC] = NSNW vegetation type description, from Perrin et al. (2008).

- [COVERAGE] = percentage Fossitt habitat composition of the polygon (note: NOT the

percentage composition of the overall site). This is always 100% for non-mosaic polygons.

For mosaic polygons, the value may be taken from the General Site Data (Blue) sheet found

in individual site packs, an estimated figure arrived at by surveyors after survey of the site, or

from a combination of the estimated figure and the accurate area provided by GIS.

• [SAC] = SAC code if site is wholly or partially in an SAC.

• [PARCEL_NO] = Redundant field; formerly held the FIPS parcel numbers which intersect with

that polygon. However, as site polygons may intersect with a large number of FIPS polygons, including, in many cases, minute slivers, it is preferable that this

NSNW_Woodland_Habitats_2010 shapefile be viewed in tandem with the FIPS layer, or that

an intersect be carried out between the two as required for individual sites. The field has,

therefore, been left blank in this shapefile. It is recommended that this field be deleted from

this shapefile.

• [MAP_BASE] = Aerial photograph series used for mapping. Three possible values:

1) 2000 = 2000 AP series; used for sites surveyed 2003-2004;

2) 2005 = 2005 AP series; used for sites surveyed 2005-2007

3) 2000, 2005 = Both series used; in a small number of cases, both series had to be

viewed for more accurate digitisation of the site.

• [INITIALS] = Initials of BEC person who digitised site.

• [ESTIMATE] = an indication of the degree of certainty of the habitat boundary. Y was entered

here if the habitat boundary was unclear from the aerial photograph or hand-drawn field map;

an entry was made in the NSNW_Site_Issues.xls spreadsheet submitted as part of this

project.

• [AREA] = Area of polygon in square metres.

Metadata

File identifier

0dc3c50e-c4f2-4cda-88e9-9835e738a6a2 XML

Metadata language

English

Character set

UTF8

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Date stamp

2025-05-19T13:16:41

Metadata standard name

ISDI Metadata Profile

Metadata standard version

1.2

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie	Author