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The County Clare Wetlands Survey Patrick Crushell & Peter Foss 2008 ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1.4 Other reports holding wetland information on Clare A series of other reports holding information on a limited number of wetland sites in County Clare were consulted. A full list of these reports, studies and surveys can be seen in CWS Appendix 1. In the case of each report the sites listed in County Clare were screened against the existing sites in the CWS database. If a site was not located within the CWS database, a new database site record was created. In the case of both new and existing site records, data on the scientific interest present on the site, previous research source, habitats present, and basic site information was recorded within the CWS database. The data for these sites was imported manually from the various published reports. 2.1 Sites from CWS site database 2 CWS GIS Database A shapefile was created from an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet exported from the CWS site database. This dataset contained point information showing the location of each CWS site recorded from the extensive literature search and input from third parties. Each point denoting a site had basic site information (originating from CWS site database) associated with recorded in various attribute fields including CWS site name, CWS site code, designation etc. The location of each point was subsequently checked using GIS to ensure that grid references were correct. 2.2 Designated sites – NHA/SAC/SPA Site boundary files for all existing NHA, SAC and SPA site in County Clare were obtained from NPWS and directly imported into the CWS GIS. These boundary files were subsequently used to denote the boundaries of many CWS sites (those lying within designated sites). Where a CWS site was found to lie within a designated site, the boundary of the appropriate designated site was exported into a CWS site boundary shape-file. This shapefiles has a number of attributes including; source of the boundary, CWS site Code(s), calculated area, X_coord (easting), Y_coord (northing) of the polygon centroid. In many cases, CWS sites had no existing boundaries associated with them especially in the cases where: they lay within a large designated site complex; or sites that had never been previously mapped (including many cNHA’s). In the case where sites were contained within much larger designated sites, individual boundaries were not drawn, but the subsites were recorded in the attributes of the larger boundary. In the case where sites were outside of existing boundaries, a boundary was generated where on inspection the site was clearly visible on the aerial photograph and other base-maps. Unfortunately, in some cases, CWS sites do not have boundaries associated with them as it was not possible to confirm the wetland area by referring to the relevant base-maps and background site data available. 2.3 Habitat type datasets Many existing datasets (as listed in Appendix 1) were imported directly into the CWS GIS. Each habitat unit was then exported from its source into a CWS habitat (polygon) shapefile. This shapefile had a number of attribute fields associated with it including source, area and habitat type recorded as the alpha numeric code assigned by Fossitt (2000). Due to the different sources of the data it was often necessary to transform the habitat data into an appropriate Fossitt category. Where it was not possible to attain level 1 in Fossitt, then the habitat was assigned into a category ‘CWS unknown wetland type’. In the case of rivers, data was extracted from one primary source and imported into a separate CWS (linear) shapefile. Similarly with springs, the data was displayed in a separate (point) shapefile. The same attributes were assigned to these shapefiles as the polygon one above. 83
The County Clare Wetlands Survey Patrick Crushell & Peter Foss 2008 ____________________________________________________________________________________ 2.4 Paper based mapped sites Due to time constraints a limited number of habitat maps available on paper were incorporated into the CWS GIS as part of this study. The appropriate wetland habitat types were identified on these sites, assigned to the relevant Fossitt wetland habitat and new wetland habitat polygons were drawn within the CWS habitat shapefile. Specifically, this exercise was undertaken in relation to a habitat map of the Burren National Park in the Mullaghmore area (Moles and Travers 1981), maps of Turloughs produced by Goodwillie (1992) and an EIS habitat map for the Gort by-pass (Galway County Council 2006). 84
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Report Cover Vol I - Clare County Library

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