Ireland’s Marine Atlas is developed and maintained by the Marine Institute with funding by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. The atlas provides a one-stop-shop to view and download marine environmental data relevant to reporting under Ireland’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).  The Compass team were instrumental in development of a first version that was driven by immediate MSFD requirements, and a following open source based version with greater visual qualities and usability.  It is a highly usable and attractive example of an open source based map viewer.

Data for EU Directives

The aim of the European Union’s MSFD directive is to more effectively protect the marine environment across Europe through the establishment of “good marine waters”. Data in Ireland’s Marine Atlas has been guided by the European Directive on harmonising environmental data across Europe within a spatial data infrastructure known as INSPIRE. INSPIRE Data Specifications (Data Models) have been used to manage and attribute data to the categories visible under THEMES in the atlas.

Compass Informatics worked alongside the Marine Institute and other consultants to deliver on the requirements of the MSFD in relation to data collation, analysis, dissemination, and detailsed reporting.