Under Article 4 of the Birds Directive (Directive 2009/ 147/EC) six Special Protection Areas (SPAs), covering a total land area of c.1,671km² has been classified for the conservation of the Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus in Ireland. A survey of breeding Hen Harrier reported that 128 to 172 breeding pairs were recorded in 2010 which was broadly similar to the totals recorded in the previous survey in 2005. However notable declines were recorded in some traditional strongholds of this species’ breeding range (Ruddock et al., 2012). In 2014 a Hen Harrier Habitat Mapping Project focusing on these SPAs and based on remote sensing techniques was undertaken. This project was to produce a contemporary geospatially digitised habitat map for the six SPAs. This project produced a contemporary geospatially digitised habitat map for the six SPAs. This projects was to use habitat categories that broadly correspond to the Fossitt Classification system (Smith et al., 2011), distinguish habitats of ecological relevance to Hen Harrier, to use a mapping resolution corresponding to the Ordnance Survey Ireland 1:5000 base-map to allow land use within discreet enclosed land parcels to be readily identifiable.

Data Resources (2)

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Theme Environment
Date released 2014-01-10
Date updated 2021-09-10
Dataset conforms to these standards 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.
Rights notes ['https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/', '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. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/', 'otherRestrictions']
Update frequency Never
Language English
Geographic coverage in GeoJSON format {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-10.0, 51.766740000000006],[-10.0, 54.49314], [-6.000000000000001, 54.49314], [-6.000000000000001, 51.766740000000006], [-10.0, 51.766740000000006]]]}
Spatial Reference Systems (SRS) Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM, EPSG:2157)
Vertical Extent {"verticalDomainName": "EPSG Projection 5731 - Malin Head height", "minVerticalExtent": "0", "maxVerticalExtent": "1014"}
Provenance information The OSI 1:5000 boundary line was chosen as the base-layer upon which all habitat mapping was based. The SPA boundary data to be used for all habitat mapping was version 3 (Positioning Accuracy Improved (PAI) SPA boundaries in ITM). Previous versions of the SPA boundary were mapped on six inch maps and there are a number of discrepancies in SPA boundaries fitting neatly onto field boundaries in OSI 1:5000. If there were fields traversing the SPA boundary whole field, as it exists in the OSI 1:5000 base layer, was mapped. For this reason, a 500m buffer round the SPA boundary was established prior to mapping to ensure that any overlap was afforded full coverage in the habitat map. All habitats mapped by discrete polygons/lines were assigned an attribute “LAND_PARCE” within the relevant shape-file. “Select by location”, was utilised to select if the discrete polygon/line feature was within the SPA boundary. Features contained within the SPA boundary have a value of “IN” for this attribute. Features traversing the SPA boundary, or outside of the boundary but considered of importance with regards to providing an ecological corridor (such as a hedgerow bounding a field that has been excluded from the SPA) have a value of “OUT” for this attribute. For a full methodlogy on remote sensing and habitat classification, please refer to the project report available as an Irish Wildlife manual via the NPWS website at http://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/IWM83.pdf