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OPW releases new threedimensional information about Irish terrain as ‘Open Data’
Vincent Hussey and Robert McGivern, Flood Risk Management
High value Light Detection and Ranging data (LiDAR), captured as part of Flood Risk Management Projects, has been made publicly available by the Office of Public Works.
The OPW released the highly accurate three-dimensional information captured as part of Flood Risk Management Projects as ‘Open Data’ under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license through the Geological Survey of Ireland’s Open Topographic Data Viewer.
The OPW is releasing this data in support of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’ Open Data Initiative, which calls for all of Ireland’s State Agencies to enable access to data of local and national importance
Open data is based on the concept that results of research should be freely accessible to all to allow knowledge to move forward in the common good. As such, Open Data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement that the source of the information is attributed to its producer.
The OPW LiDAR data covers many urban and coastal areas across Ireland and is freely useable, with attribution, for all commercial and non-commercial projects. The data covers the main urban areas in the country and much of the coastline in the East and South East.
LiDAR data is collected using a laser sensor on aircraft or satellites. It generates a dense cloud of points from which a digital elevation model (DEM) or digital map showing ground elevations on a regular grid is created. The data released has a cell size of 2 or 5 meters, so the points are 2m (or 5m) apart on a regular grid. This data is used in a wide range of software, including many freely available ones, for example GDAL (www.gdal.org) and QGIS (www.qsis.org). Early attempts by scientists to measure distance by light beams were made in the 1930s with searchlights that were used to study the structure of the atmosphere. In 1938, light pulses were used to determine the heights of clouds. Because of its accuracy, LIDAR was used in the 1970s by NASA in its development of exploratory spacecraft. Applications for LIDAR continued to expand over the following decade. However, it was not until the arrival of commercially available Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment and inertial measurement units (IMUs) in the late 1980s that accurate LiDAR data was possible.
Patrick O’Donovan, T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), said:
This data was initially prepared for the Irish Coastal Protection Strategy Study (ICPSS) and the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CRFAM) programme. The CFRAM programme was carried out by the OPW and the ICPSS was carried out by the Department of the Marine, DCENR (later the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine and OPW). Further work to bring the data into a single dataset was carried out as part of the Flood Estimation Methodology for Ireland (FEMI) programme by the OPW.
The Open Topographic Data Viewer was developed by the Geological Survey of Ireland in 2018 and hosts a large amount of data from the GSI, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and other bodies.
The positive impacts of open data are wide-ranging and cover political, social and economic spheres. These can range from improving transparency and efficiency of government to its potential use for business innovation, as well as a vast array of social and personal benefits.
Further information on open data in Ireland and access to other Irish Public Sector data can be found on Ireland’s open data portal – data.gov.ie.
