1. Bringing the Data Alive
Dr Ainhoa González
School of Agriculture and Food Science, School of Geography, UCD
School of Natural Sciences, TCD
National Institute for Spatial and Regional Analysis, NUIM

2. Geographic Information Systems
•Technology that manages,
analyses and disseminates
geographic knowledge
•Link information to
location... providing the
‘Spatial Dimension’
•Create new insights
•Promote informed
decision-making

3. • Allow preparation on digitised maps
• Promote graphic display of information
• Facilitate spatial data analysis through maps and
models
• Provide easy, secure, multi-user data management
• Facilitate integration of a wide variety of datasets
• Enable the re-use of datasets - information
comparable on space and time
• Sharing datasets (e.g. public consultation)

5. Providing New
Insights…

6. Applications Insights
History
Demographics
Health
Crime
Transport planning
Land use planning
Environmental assessment
Spatial patterns,
links and juxtapositions
Temporal patterns and
trends
Data Management
The Issue of Scale

7. 17th
Century
Roads
Ownership name and religion
Murders in the 1641 rebellion
1670
1641
Time Series - Patterns

8. UCD Digital
Library
• Joint project with OSi
• Scanned images for 76 Irish towns/cities
• 5 and 10 foot town plan maps dating from the
latter half of the 19th
century
• Digital Library: digital.ucd.ie/
Athy -1872
Limerick 1870Dublin - 1847

9. Time Series - Trends
Irish
Famine
Atlas

10. Spatial Trends
2001
2011

11. Spatial Links
Topography? History? Or both?

12. London
Cholera
1854
Spatial Patterns

13. Spatial Patterns
Access to Health
Services
Time Impacts of Border
Increases in Travel Time

14. Spatial Patterns Community Safety
in Blanchardstown

15. Spatial Juxtapositions
Road
Safety

16. Spatial Juxtapositions
Transport
Planning

17. Spatial Juxtapositions
Project Planning

18. Spatial Juxtapositions
Environmental Assessment

19. Urban Pressure
+
Spatial Juxtapositions
Environmental Vulnerability Area (Km2
) Percentage (%) relative to Category
Low Vulnerability Areas 190.46 12.1
Moderate Vulnerability Areas 104.74 23.1
Vulnerable Areas 11.3 28.2
High Vulnerability Areas 2.28 24.9
Extreme Vulnerability Areas 0.1 16.7
Environmental Assessment

20. Data Management

21. Availability / Accessibility
• Lack of relevant data layers
• Scale of available data
• Copyright and privacy
• Costs (e.g. OSi, Geodirectory)
Freedom of Information
“state collected spatial data is public property”
INSPIRE Directive
Measures
“...not to inhibit the
extensive use of data”

22. Accuracy, Completeness and Quality

23. The Issue of Scale…

24. Grasshoper
warble
Cuckoo• Visitor April-September
• Amber-listed: continued
decline in the breeding
range and population
Geographical Extent
• Visitor April-August
• Green-listed

25. 1:50.000
1:5.000
Spatial Scale

26. Temporal Scale

27. Final Remarks

28. Multiple ways of looking at the world…
…multiple ways of representing and
analysing data

29. …Data Alive…
✓ Systematic and transparent combination of multiple layers
✓ Enhanced information delivery (visual and spatially-specific)
✓ Better understanding of issues
Dead without Good Data...
➔ Availability and accessibility of datasets
➔ Scale of available datasets
➔ Accuracy (quality, completeness and currency)

30. Q&A
Thank you