Digital Datasets
Various digital datasets held by Natural Heritage are now available for download from this website. This data can be used by Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The datasets that can be downloaded here are only digital boundaries - there is no background mapping. The digitising is based on Ordnance Survey (NI)
maps and they can supply vector and raster maps for background mapping for Northern Ireland.
File Formats
The datasets are available as zipped shapefiles which is the file format used by ArcView. Shapefiles can be read by most GIS packages, look in the Help section of your software on how to import them. If you have any problems reading these files, please contact mark.wright@doeni.gov.uk For ArcExplorer (click here), a free viewing package is available for download from ESRI, the makers of ArcView which would also allow these datasets to be viewed. Recorder 2002, a software package for biological recording, is another programme that can read and display these files.
Zip Files
Zipping a file means that the files are compressed to more manageable sizes saving you time on downloads. The files have to be unzipped before they can be used in a GIS package. To get WinZip, click here.
Projections
The Irish National Grid is a different grid system from the British National Grid. Most GIS packages do not allow you to view datasets that are based on different grid systems, but some allow you to translate between different projections. To overcome this, you have the choice here to download datasets in either Irish Grid or British Grid. If you need the data in a different projection, check to see if your GIS package can re-project one of the datasets and if not, contact mark.wright@doeni.gov.uk.
Use of the datasets
Please note that by downloading the digital datasets, you will be accepting the Terms and Conditions as shown on the download page.