Article 12 Birds Directive Reporting 2008-2012 Dataset Series

Category: Environment
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The Birds Directive (Directive 2009/147/EC) came into force in Ireland in 1981. Article 12 of this directive requires Member States to report on the implementation of national provisions taken under this Directive including specific reporting on status and trends of bird species. The first new format Article 12 report was submitted by member states in 2014 covering the four year period 2008 – 2012 inclusive. The Eionet website provides access to the information contained in all the national reports - see http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/article12/.

The reports include a separate report for each individual bird species. If the particular report is describing a breeding population then a breeding distribution and range map forms part the report. Detailed distribution data was primarily derived from the 2007-11 Bird Atlas (via BirdWatch Ireland) but also from species specific projects conducted by NPWS and others. Final 10km and 50km grid mapping was generated from this information by NPWS and by Birdwatch Ireland.

The resources referenced in this metadata relate to these distribution and range mapping for breeding populations in Irish National Grid.

The individual species reports on the Eionet website provide important information on the sources and selection of data to derive the final distributions and ranges.

All enquires on detailed distributions should first be directed to BirdWatch Ireland. NPWS is in a position to release the 10km (and 50km where appropriate) derived grid distribution data.

Details of the Article 12 the related reporting requirements, including reporting format guidance and reference portal are available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/knowledge/rep_birds/index_en.htm.

The following Data Resources are included in this download, and detailed metadata is available for each resource in the download:

  • AR1212_CurrentDistributionAllSpecies.shp -

Multipart polygon shapefile showing the national distribution of the all reported breeding bird species. The national grid distributions for the 135 individual species are largely based on the national distributions for these species generated by Birdwatch Ireland for the BirdAtlas2007 to 2011.

  • AR1212_CurrentRangeAllSpecies.shp

Multipart polygon shapefile showing the national range of the all 135 reported breeding bird species.

Range "...describes roughly the spatial limits within which the habitat or species occurs.

Data Resources (1)

SHP / ZIP
available as zip

Data Resource Preview - Zip file containing shapefile download

Theme Environment
Date released 2015-05-26
Date updated 2023-12-20
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 {"Unless otherwise indicated the data included in this dataset series is Copyright Government of Ireland. This dataset was created by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. This copyright material is licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","Unless otherwise indicated the data included in this dataset series is 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. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",license}
Update frequency Other
Language English
Geographic coverage in GeoJSON format {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-11.265947788472001, 51.205966241541006],[-11.265947788472001, 55.820224054041], [-5.7508110697222, 55.820224054041], [-5.7508110697222, 51.205966241541006], [-11.265947788472001, 51.205966241541006]]]}
Spatial Reference Systems (SRS) TM75 / Irish Grid (EPSG:29903)
Vertical Extent {"verticalDomainName": "EPSG Projection 5731 - Malin Head height", "minVerticalExtent": "0", "maxVerticalExtent": "1014"}
Provenance information The national grid distributions for the 135 individual species are largely based on the national distributions for these species generated by Birdwatch Ireland for the BirdAtlas2007 to 2011. Details about the atlas project (and other surveys) are available on the Birdwatch Ireland website: http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/OurWork/ResearchSurveys/Atlas/tabid/487/Default.aspx. Transect distributions for breeding seabirds from the Birdwatch Ireland Seabird 2000 census, were provided by NBDC. The data supplied was reviewed and edited by NPWS to ensure the full extent of transects were captured. The Seabird 2000 census project is described in detail in the following publication: P. Ian Mitchell, Stephen F. Newton, Norman Ratcliffe and Timothy E. Dunn (Eds.).2004.Seabird Populations of Britain and Ireland: results of the Seabird 2000 census (1998 - 2002).Published by T and A.D.Poyser, London. Breeding wader distributions are from the Bird Atlas, other BWI data and from NPWS data. All enquires on detailed distributions should first be directed to BirdWatch Ireland. NPWS is in a position solely to release the 10km (and 50km where appropriate) derived grid distribution data. With regards to the included Range dataset: for the purposes of Article 17 (Habitats Directive) and Article 12 reporting the European Topic Centre (ETC) commissioned a Range Tool**, an ArcGIS extension to generate a standardised grid based range in accordance with Article 17 guidance. The tool "...is based on calculating the distances between the centroids of grid cells and then constructing a series of poly lines and polygons to connect other centroids of grid cells based on the ‘gap distance’ specified. All cells that intersect these polylines and polygons, as well as distribution cells are used to create the range. (Evans & Arvela, 2011)* A variety of approaches was used to create the range maps for the 135 breeding birds, including use of range tool, modification of range tool outputs and in some cases expert judgement. For some species the range was considered to be the same as the favourable reference range. *Evans, D. & Arvela, M. (2011) Assessment and reporting under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. European Topic Centre **Version 30/08/2012 - Available from: http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/activities/Reporting_Tool/Documents/RangeTool_30082012.zip All data sources were in Irish Grid.
Period of time covered (begin) 2008-01-01
Period of time covered (end) 2008-12-31