The Environmental Sensitivity Mapping (ESM) Webtool – a new decision-support tool for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and planning processes in Ireland – enables users to create area-specific environmental sensitivity maps.
The webtool will support government departments, regional assemblies, local authority planners and consultants when undertaking such assessments by enabling a systematic spatial examination of environmental considerations and their vulnerability or sensitivity, as required under the SEA Directive.
Underpinning this function is the aim to enhance consistency and transparency in impact assessments across planning hierarchies and sectors, as well as facilitating participative and accountable decision-making.
It has been piloted within real-life SEAs of live plans. For example,in the development of the Regional Spatial Economic Strategy (RSES) for the Eastern and Midland Region, the ESM Webtool was used to identify and highlight the environmental constraints of proposed population growth scenarios.
Environmental sensitivity maps highlight areas where development, such as urban or industrial expansion, will likely result in significant adverse effects on the environment. They provide the basis for improved landscape governance by facilitating evidence-based decision-making in support of sustainable development, guiding development to the right location and helping to reduce land-use conflicts and environmental impacts.
By highlighting the location of natural assets, the tool provides immediate and objective information to guide development to suitable areas for environmental protection. In doing so, it places the environment at the centre of decision-making and protects lands with significant natural value from insensitive development and/or land zoning designations.
Developed and maintained by researchers at UCD’s School of Geography and the All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO) at Maynooth University, the ESM Webtool was originally developed with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Since 2019, the project has been sponsored by Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) through the provision of hosting and server infrastructure. In 2021 the tool also received joint funding from the EPA and the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR).
Recently it was ranked first on a series of European good practice case studies and, as a result, was included in the Interreg Policy Learning Platform.