A very spatial day for SEAI & GIS
What exactly is GIS? Why does SEAI use GIS? And how can GIS provide insights for a just transition to a sustainable future?
What is GIS?
GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems. It is known as the science of "where". GIS is a technology that will connect data to a map giving it a spatial component. This can involve creating, managing or analysing any type of data.
Wednesday the 20th of November is World GIS Day , it is a day dedicated to showing, teaching, and inspiring others. To spread enthusiasm and help people learn how to use GIS for themselves—in their work, in their schools, where they volunteer, or even for their hobbies and interests.
GIS in SEAI
To answer the questions "Why does SEAI use GIS?" & "How can GIS provide insights for a just transition to a sustainable future?", we need to break down national data into smaller areas to give it a spatial component. Lets look through some examples below.
Figure 1: Describing left to right, Image 1 showing a national boundary, Image 2 showing a Regional Boundary, Image 3 showing a Community Boundary, Image 4 showing a Residential level.
The SEAI Statistics team speak to national figures through the Energy Balance. To look at data on a national level there is very little spatial breakdown. To add any spatial value, national data needs to be broken down into smaller zones/boundaries. This is where GIS can help.
Figure 1 shows different levels of breakdown: National, Local authority and Small area level & finally even down to a residential buildings level. This Story map will show each of these breakdowns to explain the importance of each.
National data
Figure 2 - showing the Wind Atlas Homepage
National data generally covers a larger geographical area and is vital for international reporting obligations, guiding policy and informing investment decisions. For example, the Wind Atlas (SEAI's longest running GIS resource) is a map of Ireland's wind resource.
The development of renewable wind energy generators, including both onshore and offshore, is central to Ireland's energy policy, and the Wind Atlas helps developers carry out desktop assessments of potential sites for new generators by providing both average annual and hourly wind speeds and wind directions at a high spatial granularity.
The Wind Atlas also shows the locations of connected, energised wind farms, as well as those currently in the planning process. Figure 2 shows the homepage of the Wind Atlas displaying Connected Wind Generators and SEAI 2013 Wind Speed Data.
To view the Wind Atlas in more detail click on the button below. Alternatively you can find links to all SEAI mapping Applications in the "SEAI Mapping Resources" tab.
Regional Breakdown
Regional boundaries (see Figure 1 image 2) include Local Authority boundaries, or even Counties.
Regional breakdown can help answer questions such as: How much renewable Energy is generated in Cork County, How many heat pumps are there in Louth or Electric Vehicles in South Dublin. Take a look at some examples below from the Local Authority Climate Action Plan Dashboard (LACAP). This level of spatial data can help Local Authorities in the development of their Climate Action Plans.
Figure 3 - Home page of LACAP Dashboard
Figure 3 shows a screenshot of the Homepage of the LACAP Dashboard showing Home Energy Upgrades. There are 7 "energy topics" to select along the left side of the dashboard with each topic displaying a map of Local Authority boundaries along with colour densities corresponding with some representative value related to each topic. For example the wind energy map, the darker shade of green, the more connected the the wind power capacity exists in that LA.
Figure 4 - showing Data Window with related information for Louth CC only
Hovering your mouse over a particular Local Authority will display a data window. This data window will provide more granular information about the Energy topic in that LA. For example Figure 4 shows Domestic Renewables information for Louth County Council, this shows that there have been an estimated 3770 Solar PV's installed in this area. Figure 5 and 6 will show other similar examples of these data windows and associated Energy topics for different Local Authorities.
Figure 5 - showing information related to EV vehicles in South Dublin
Figure 6 - showing graph of BER values for County Galway
The Local Authority Climate Action Plan Dashboard will help gain localised insights into energy and investment which will support Local Authorities in the development of their Climate Action Plans. The Dashboard allows the LA's to explore these energy topics in an easy-to-understand visual way and then download the data required if they wish to complete their own analysis. If you would like to see this in action head to the link below:
Community Level
Community or small area boundaries (see Figure 1 image 3) are broken down further again. There are over 18000 small area boundaries nationally and over 900 Sustainable Energy Communities around the country registered with SEAI. The SEAI communities program are planning at regional level, but actioning at a community level. This is why it is important to show spatial data at a a community level.
Figure 7 - showing the Home page of the application
One example showing this level of breakdown is our new Sustainable Energy Communities Energy Master Planning Dashboard (SEC-EMP). This dashboard combines statistical and spatial information, side-by-side by analysing data at a Community level. The dashboard has a user friendly interface (Figure 7) for the SEC mentors and contractors to use and allows users to download tables of data, printable maps and filter all these to their own community.
The SEC EMP Dashboard can filter your data to 1 community. This will pre-filter all the page maps, statistical charts and tables within the application. You can then click through the different energy related tabs and view these topics. Figure 8 below shows the pre-filtered SEC of Balbriggan, showing the Building Energy ratings of each small area. This will help visualise areas of interest, for example answer questions where you may want promote energy upgrade grants showing areas of lower BER values.
Figure 8 - SEC EMP Dashboard BER page with filter
Figure 9 showing another pre-filtered tab. This time showing Electric Vehicle (EV) Grants within the Balbriggan Community. The related graph is showing change over time on how many EV grants there are per year within the Balbriggan Community.
Figure 9 - SEC EMP Dashboard EV grants with filter
To view the full application click on the button below:
SEAI Mapping Resources
Data and information on the below:
- Bioenergy: Bioenergy Atlas (arcgis.com)
- Hydro: Hydro Atlas (arcgis.com)
- Building Energy Ratings : BER Map of Ireland (arcgis.com)
- Solar: Solar Atlas (arcgis.com)
- Wind : Wind Atlas (arcgis.com)
Upskill in GIS
If you are looking to upskill in GIS there are various courses online that you can complete. Linked below are a few of the most recommended courses to take from GIS professionals. Most of these courses provide licenses for you to use the ESRI software such as ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Online during your training. You can also use other open source software such as QGIS if you wish to use a GIS based software without a need of a license.
- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) courses coming up - Learn how to use ESRI's ArcGIS Pro software or ArcGIS Online with courses like Cartography, Spatial data analysis or Geo Apps.
- Esri Academy - nearly 500 different types of long & short courses of various levels. Over 200 are free.
- Coursera - GIS, Mapping and Spatial Analysis with QGIS
Other tools that are useful in the GIS world - where you can conduct spatial analysis - FME, Python, MS SQL.
