News

igr 1.0.0: new release of R package supporting Irish grid references

The R package igr is designed to simplify working with Irish grid references. It is particularly useful when Irish grid references need to be plotted or analysed digitally.

The latest version of igr is now available on CRAN. Version 1.0.0 can:

  • Convert Irish grid references (e.g. N8000) to Irish Grid coordinates (e.g. X 280000, Y 200000)
  • Convert Irish grid references to an sf object in any coordinate reference system (e.g. WGS84 longitude and latitude)
  • Handle precisions of 100 km, 10 km, 2 km (tetrad), 1 km, 100 m, 10 m and 1 m
  • Handle data sets that contains a mix of precisions
  • Convert Irish grid references to points (either the south-west corners or centroids of the Irish grid references)
  • Convert Irish grid references to polygons (each polygon being precision-aware)
  • Convert Irish Grid coordinates to Irish grid references
  • Convert an sf object containing points in any coordinate reference system to a set of Irish grid references

The initial versions of igr released and tweaked during 2024 were downloaded over 1000 times from CRAN and successfully used by Irish ecologists and data scientists. The package is now considered to be feature-complete and stable and is freely available to anyone needing to convert data from or to Irish grid references.

As always, feedback on igr is welcome via GitHub Issues. If you find igr interesting or useful please star the Github project.

Enjoy!

igr can convert Irish grid references of mixed precision (including tetrads like R10H) to precision-aware polygons
Visit igr Homepage
Visit igr on GitHub
Visit igr on CRAN

Screening the Irish coastline for Managed Realignment

Over the last two years Digital Nature has participated in an OPW-funded project “Screening of Special Protection Areas for Managed Realignment”. Eleven study areas around the Irish coast were examined in detail. An article introducing the topic of managed realignment in Ireland and the context for this project can now be seen on pages 2 and 3 in Issue 28 of I-WeBS News published by BirdWatch Ireland here.

I-WeBS News 2024 (issue 28)Download

igr 0.2.0: Including tetrad Irish grid reference support

The initial release of igr supported Irish grid references with precision of 1 m, 10 m, 100 m, 1 km, 10 km and 100 km square.

A refinement of Irish grid references to refer to 2 km squares – also known as tetrads – involves placing a letter after a 10 km grid reference. The letter identifies the required 2 km square within the 10 km square. This is sometimes known as the “DINTY” system. The letter “O” is not used.

All functions in the latest version of igr now support tetrad Irish grid references. This support can be turned off if required.

igr now also has the ability to convert Irish grid references to the centroid of the square each Irish grid reference refers to. This can be useful if plotting Irish grid references as points. As before, datasets with mixed precision of Irish grid reference are supported.

No breaking changes were needed to any of the igr functions with this release. If the functionality of this latest version appears to be sufficient and stable, igr will be released in the coming months as version 1.0.0.

Feedback on igr is welcome via GitHub Issues.

Enjoy!

igr can now handle tetrad Irish grid references e.g. R10H

Visit igr Homepage
Visit igr on GitHub
Visit igr on CRAN

igr: An R package supporting Irish grid references

Digital Nature is pleased to announce the initial release of igr, an open-source R package designed to simplify using Irish grid references in R. The package is now available via CRAN.

Location data can be stored in many different forms and formats, and locations on the island of Ireland have often been recorded using Irish grid references. Based on the Irish Grid coordinate reference system (EPSG:29903), Irish grid references have three components: a letter referring to a particular 100 km square, and an easting and a northing that together refer to an area within that 100 km square. Many GIS (Geographic Information System) tools can handle Irish Grid coordinates, but they do not know how to handle Irish grid references.

igr converts Irish grid references to and from Irish Grid coordinates in R. It also converts Irish grid references to and from sf (simple feature) objects, a popular and powerful format for geospatial data analysis and visualization in R.

The higher the number of digits in the easting and northing components of an Irish grid reference, the higher the precision. igr supports levels of precision from 1 m to 100 km. Datasets with a mix of precision are supported, as are those with or without whitespace between the letter, easting and northing.

When converting from an Irish grid reference to an sf object, the Irish grid references can be converted to point or polygon features. Polygons created by igr are precision-aware: their size depends on the precision of the Irish grid reference.

igr can create precision-aware polygons

igr comes with extensive documentation including a vignette with example code, and has comprehensive unit test coverage. Although there are no known issues with igr at the time of publication, as per best practice with R packages it has been given a low version number for this initial release and so can be considered somewhat experimental. When igr functionality appears to be sufficient and stable it will be released as version 1.0.0.

Feedback on igr is welcome via GitHub Issues.

Enjoy!

Visit igr Homepage
Visit igr on GitHub
Visit igr on CRAN

Natural Heritage of County Cork

Congratulations to the Heritage of County Cork publication team who recently launched their latest book, the Natural Heritage of County Cork, with the support of Cork County Council and the Heritage Council.

As well as introducing the flora and fauna of the county, the book also includes details of 30 standout sites where the richness of local biodiversity can be appreciated. Digital Nature was pleased to produce all of the maps within this publication including the overview map and all 30 detailed site maps.

The book is being made freely available from libraries in County Cork and may also be purchased from various book stores – some now selling it online. In time the publication will be added to the online catalogue of the Heritage of County Cork series.

Enjoy!

Scientific Publications

Detailed information on recent work with BirdWatch Ireland has just been published in the peer-reviewed Irish Birds Journal, Issue Number 45. This issue includes articles on:

  • Site-level trends and national trends for wintering waterbirds in Ireland 1994/95-2019/20 by J. Kennedy, B. Burke, N. Fitzgerald, S.B.A. Kelly, A. Walsh and L.J. Lewis.
  • Mapping of Farmland Bird Hotspots: a method to assist targeting of agri-environment measures by J. Kennedy, K. Finney, J. Lusby, D. Maloney, O. Duggan and A. Donaghy.

A sincere thanks to all the co-authors of these articles, the funders of these projects, and the editorial team and peer-reviewers of Irish Birds for helping deliver and publish this work.

The journal can be purchased from BirdWatch Ireland online here, and is also issued to all Key Members of BirdWatch Ireland.

Exploration of Yellowhammer Data at Irish Ornithological Research Conference

Digital Nature was delighted to be present at the Irish Ornithological Research Conference in March 2023, a conference brimming with information and expertise. Digital Nature contributed with a summary of the results of an exploration of Yellowhammer data – now available in our Showcase area. Further details are being prepared for formal publication…stay tuned!

A poster summarising an exploration of yellowhammer data
A summary of the exploration of Yellowhammer data undertaken by Digital Nature
View PDF Poster

Trends of Wetland Birds in Ireland

Digital Nature is delighted to share that the Irish Wetland Bird Survey: I-WeBS National and Site Trends Report 1994/95 – 2019/20 has just been published by BirdWatch Ireland.

This report details how 36 species of wetland bird are faring in Ireland based on the data gathered by more than 1,100 surveyors that have contributed details of more than 81,000 site visits since the I-WeBS survey started in 1994. National Trends are provided as well as Site-Specific Trends for 97 sites.

Extract from the national trends in the I-WeBS Trends Report 1994/95 – 2019/20

Details of the analysis are described in the I-WeBS Trends Report Methodology document. The Underhill technique was used to impute missing counts where appropriate, seasonal counts were indexed to focus on relative changes in abundance, and Generalised Additive Models were employed to smooth these trends. Short, Medium and Long-Term Trends have been calculated and plotted for each species.

Extract from the Lough Swilly Site Trend Report

For more information on this report see this dedicated BirdWatch Ireland article.

Mapping of Farmland Bird Hotspots

In mid-2021 BirdWatch Ireland, supported by the Heritage Council and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine, commissioned Digital Nature to develop hotspot maps of farmland birds in Ireland. After extensive data gathering and data preparation phases, hotspot maps at both 10km and 1km resolution were successfully produced, based on scientifically validated records of threatened species of farmland bird in Ireland.

An introduction to the project has been published online by BirdWatch Ireland. It outlines how the various records in the datasets acquired were scored. Factors taken into account included:

Draft BirdWatch Ireland Farmland Bird Hotspots map as of August 2021
  • the species observed and its conservation status
  • the season of the record (e.g. breeding season or winter season)
  • the typical range of that species for that season
  • any level of breeding evidence recorded
  • the age of the record (more recent records scoring higher)

As reported by BirdWatch Ireland in issue 103 of their WINGS magazine, the project has gathered an unprecedented 29 datasets containing over 2.5 million records of bird observations in Ireland. Extensive BirdWatch Ireland datasets have been supplemented with valuable data provided by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine, the Heritage Council, the National Biodiversity Data Centre and Bord na Móna.

After filtering for twenty-seven species of interest more than 130,000 records remained. These were transformed into a consistent structure and format, and a scoring algorithm was carefully engineered and automated to construct the required maps.

Hotspot maps were generated taking all twenty-seven species of Farmland Bird into account. Hotspot maps were also generated for various subsets of these species, including Breeding Waders. All of these maps are being updated as more scientifically validated datasets become available, and as further refinements to the scoring algorithm and scoring parameters are developed.

It has been Digital Nature’s pleasure to work with the BirdWatch Ireland Policy and Advocacy Team on this suite of innovative maps. It is hoped that they will provide valuable insights informing the intensive efforts that are underway to try and secure the presence of these species in the Irish landscape for future generations.

An Award-Winning Entry in the Dublin Region Open Data Active Travel Challenge!

Digital Nature was delighted to present its entry to the Dublin Region Open Data Active Travel Challenge Showcase organized by Smart Dublin in July 2021.

The Digital Nature analysis Active Travel to School: Locating Investments for Impact was one of 12 projects presented in a rapid-fire series of demonstrations…and was awarded Second Prize in the competition!

All of the entries identified and pursued new ways of using Open Data to support and promote walking, cycling and being active in the Dublin Region.

Find out more, view the webinar presentation, and explore Digital Nature’s award-winning entry below…

Smart Dublin Showcase Webinar
View Digital Nature’s Presentation
Explore Digital Nature’s Award-Winning Entry

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