Illegal landfills, insensitive golf course developments, unmapped promontory forts and an abundance of seals - these are just some of the things detected in the new national aerial survey of the coastline which is now being reproduced on CD ROM.
The survey for the Marine Institute is halfway through its work and it just needs about 10 days of clear weather to be completed.
Over 7,000 km of aerial digital imagery have already been recorded, each image covering less than 1 km of coastline, extending at least 450 m inland and with a 30 cm resolution.
Publicising the first two CD ROMs in Howth, Co Dublin, yesterday, the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, said the information would be critical for experts in coastal zone management, emergency response, tourism development and environmental impact assessment. The first disks contain images of counties Louth, Meath, Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford. About half of Cork, all of Kerry, and Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal still have to be flown over, according to Mr Brendan Dollard of Enterprise Ireland, one of the project partners.
The camera can pick up individual holiday homes, the number of seals in a colony, and it has noticed where golf course developers have left little room at the foreshore for public access. This has contributed to environmental degradation.
In fact, the impact of recreational pressure on the vegetation is a recurring factor in the survey, which will be used for the Department's geographical information systems database. The Irish Marine Emergency Service will also use the information for new anti-pollution measures, including clean-up guidelines for beaches.
The project is co-funded by the State and the EU.
Project partners include Enterprise Ireland's offshore marine and coastal engineering unit, the Ordnance Survey and Compass Informatics, a young Dublin-based software company which developed the rapid response camera system. It also supervised the aerial survey and image processing and developed the CD ROM-based viewing system, known as Coastal View.
The first disks are available at £25 each from the Marine Institute in Dublin, and specific images can be printed for individual use, subject to acknowledgement.
