Independent Councillor Yvonne Everard has raised a query about GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping at a meeting of Meath County Council. The GIS is a computer system that analyses and displays geographic referenced information. The councillor has raised questions about mapping at two successive meetings of the county council, asking whether the zoning figures in the county development plan are accurate for the mapped areas within the plan.
Planning official Gareth McMahon said that each settlement was considered to be as accurate as the available data sets allow. She asked where the data set came from and Mr McMahon responded that it came from GIS mapping. She said that having looked at the GIS she had “real concerns”. She said she had noticed that the photographic images had not been updated since 2013. The imagery from 1996 was showing houses and roads that were “not even developed at the time”.
There’s houses removed from imagery. She said that Ordnance Survey Ireland had published a book of maps in 2006 called North Leinster Town Maps. There was large-scale revision from 2004-2005 and there were some “major discrepancies”, for example some areas were being shown as built up when in fact they were only being developed at the moment. “OSI boundaries have been moved hundreds of metres, there’s main roads not lining up. This is just a few examples of this mapping. This questions our entire mapping system for the whole country”.
Director of Services in Finance, Fiona Lawless, said she felt the system of mapping the council had at the moment was accurate. However, she would take a note of the councillor’s remarks and go back and look at the system. A lot of resources went into mapping. The councillor said she wasn’t questioning the mapping as such but the overall scenario on GIS throughout the entire country.
