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Settlement Boundaries

In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on OSi mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

Simple

Alternate title

Statistical Boundaries - Settlements

Date (Creation)
2015-01-01
Date (Publication)
2018-11-21
Citation identifier
AU.IE.EPA.ADMIN_SETTLEMENTS
Purpose

Used in GIS systems as base information for analysis, in static maps and webGIS applications.

Status
Completed
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Environmental Protection Agency

gis@epa.ie

Point of contact
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

GemetInspireTheme

  • Administrative units

GEMET - Concepts, version 3.1

  • administration

Environmental Protection Agency

  • Settlement Boundaries

  • Admin Boundaries

ISO 3166

  • IE

Use limitation

EPA INTERNAL

Use limitation

Data is for public use under Creative Commons CC-By 4.0

Access constraints
License
Other constraints

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

Spatial representation type
Vector
Denominator
50000
Language
English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Boundaries
N
S
E
W
thumbnail




Begin date
2010-11-09T00:00:00
End date
2010-11-09T00:00:00

Vertical extent

Minimum value
0
Maximum value
1014

Vertical CS

No information provided.

Vertical datum

Reference system identifier
EPSG / http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/29902

EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset 2009-11-25

Distribution format
Name Version

ESRI Shapefile

10.x

Distributor contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Environmental Protection Agency

Informatics

gis@epa.ie

Publisher
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

application/json

https://gis.epa.ie/geoserver/EPA/ows?service=WFS&version=1.0.0&request=GetFeature&typeName=EPA:ADMIN_Settlements&maxFeatures=50&outputFormat=application%2Fjson

GeoJSON

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

image/png

https://gis.epa.ie/geoserver/EPA/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetMap&layers=EPA:ADMIN_Settlements&styles=&bbox=36770.62229999993,25775.557700000703,333394.6261,450355.5731000006&width=536&height=768&srs=EPSG:29902&format=image%2Fpng

WMS GetMap

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Conformance result

Title

INSPIRE Data Specification on Administrative units

Alternate title

INSPIRE Data Specifications v3.0

Date (Publication)
2014-04-17
Explanation

The INSPIRE Directive or INSPIRE lays down a general framework for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of European Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.

Pass
No

Conformance result

Title

COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Alternate title

INSPIRE Interoperability Regulation

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation

Level of conformance with the COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Pass
No
Statement

Obtained from Ordnance Survey Ireland, 2018 update.

Metadata

File identifier
c07aac81-4b33-42b0-9364-446908da4c98 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2023-08-21T14:05:40.408Z
Metadata standard name

ISDI Metadata Profile

Metadata standard version

1.2

Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Environmental Protection Agency

Data Analyst

gis@edenireland.ie

Point of contact
 
 

Overviews

overview
thumbnail

Spatial extent

thumbnail

Keywords

Environmental Protection Agency

Admin Boundaries Settlement Boundaries
GEMET - Concepts, version 3.1

administration
GemetInspireTheme

Administrative units


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