Ireland

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!

Exploring Data: All About Clane

The breadth of data published online is growing all the time, but it can be challenging to filter, process, combine and visualise in a way that the most valuable insights are revealed.

Digital Nature is delighted to demonstrate some of the insights that can be revealed from freely available information….using our local community – Clane in County Kildare – as an example.

First off we explore the nature of the Population of Clane and provide answers to questions such as

Population Density as per CSO Small Areas using Hex Bins
Population Density of Clane as per CSO Small Areas using Hex Bins
  • How many people live in the area?
  • Where do they live?
  • How does the population density vary across Clane?
  • What is the age profile of the population?
  • How does the age profile of Clane differ to the national age profile?

This type of analysis can help inform investment priorities for school and medical facilities, infrastructure providers, community groups, sports organizations and businesses.

A similar analysis could be performed for any location in Ireland, and more specific questions can be explored in depth.

We look forward to extending this analysis over time. If you have suggestions for future topics to explore, or any follow-on questions please Contact Digital Nature.

Explore Showcase