2013 - University College Cork

RESEARCH PROJECTS
26
Geomatics and Remote Sensing
COASTAL WEB ATLAS (CWA) DEVELOPMENT: THE
MARINE IRISH DIGITAL ATLAS (MIDA) AND THE
INTERNATIONAL COASTAL ATLAS NETWORK (ICAN)
Research Centre/Department/School: CMRC
Start Year: 2002
End Year: ongoing
Funding Body: HEA, Northern Ireland
Environment Agency, CMRC
Researchers: Kathrin Kopke, Rory Scarrott,
David Roig Cervera, Miguel Castillo, Ned Dwyer,
Declan Dunne, Yassine Lassoued, Ali Al-Othman
Contact PI: Ned Dwyer (n.dwyer@ucc.ie)
Website: http://mida.ucc.ie and http://ican.science.oregonstate.edu/home
The Marine Irish Digital Atlas (MIDA) is a coastal web atlas (CWA), which provides a unique
resource where people interested in coastal and marine information can visualise and identify pertinent
geospatial datasets and determine where to acquire them. The atlas offers digital geospatial
data, incorporates text and uses multimedia elements. Integrating the latest advances in web-based
mapping techniques, MIDA allows the display of data layers from numerous coastal and marine
organisations, thus providing the best single resource for finding and viewing existing coastal and
marine data related to the Island of Ireland. MIDA is a node in the Irish Spatial Data Infrastructure
(ISDE) and in 2011 alone; MIDA had an average of 800 unique visits per month. CMRC attained a
key role in advancing CWA development through the MIDA project and is one of the founders of
the International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN).
The ICAN, a pilot project of UNESCO’s International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange
(IODE) programme since 2011, aims to be a global reference for the development of coastal
web atlases. The Network has currently over 50 member organisations from more than 14 different
countries. A key aim of ICAN is to share experiences and to find common solutions to CWA development,
while ensuring maximum relevance and added value for the end users. Recent achievements of
ICAN include the publication of a handbook on how to develop a coastal web atlas and the ongoing
development of an interoperability demonstrator showing how CWAs can be linked together.
KEY PUBLICATIONS & OUTPUTS
Report of International Coastal Atlas Network Workshop 5: Coastal Atlases
as Engines for Coastal & Marine Spatial Planning, Dwyer, N., Kopke
K., Berman M., Belpaeme K., O’Dea L., Haddad T., and Wright D. , Cork,
Ireland, (2012).
O’Dea, E. K., Dwyer E., Cummins V. and Wright, D. J., 2011, Potentials and
limitations of coastal web atlases, Journal of Coastal Conservation: Planning
and Management, Volume 15, Issue 1, p.1-21, (2011)
Coastal Informatics: Web Atlas Design and Implementation, Wright,
Dawn(ed.) J., Dwyer Edward(ed.), and Cummins(ed.) V. , 344 pages (2010),
Published by: Information Science Reference, IGI Global, Hershey, PA.
Dwyer, N., Kopke, K., Cummins, V., O’Dea, E. and Dunne, D., 2010 Ireland.
In: D. Wright, E. Dwyer and V. Cummins (ed.) Coastal Informatics: Web
MIDA Screenshot of interactive map
Atlas Design and Implementation, between pages 105-130, 344 pages, Published
by: Information Science Reference, IGI Global, Hershey, PA.
O’Dea, L, Dwyer, E, Cummins, V, Dunne, D., 2010 Harmonising Marine Data Exchange in Ireland. In: Green, D. (ed.) Coastal
and Marine Geospatial Technologies. In series: Coastal Systems and Continental Margins, Vol. 13. Springer. 451pp, ISBN:
978-1-4020-9719-5.
ICAN Interoperability prototype: http://netmar.ucc.ie/discovery/