1:100,000 BEDROCK GEOLOGY OF IRELAND, SEAMLESS GIS EDITION

A new CD product of the entire 1:100,000 Bedrock geology of Ireland in ESRI GIS format was released in 2006. It contains seamless ESRI Shapefiles based on the printed 1:100,000 map series.

There are six layers in the dataset, the bedrock polygons, structural linework, stratigraphic linework, mineral localities from the map series, a set of lines showing the positions of cross sections and an index map to the 1:100,000 maps and booklets.

The CD contains the free ESRI GIS viewer ArcExplorer so clients without ESRI software or other GIS systems can also view and query the data. A project file for ArcExplorer is included so most data can be viewed with the same colours as the printed maps. All the printed maps, including sections and marginalia, are on the CD in PDF format.

ArcExplorer was chosen because it has the ability to load web mapping services, such as that available from GSI, as a separate layer. This means, for instance, that a county Groundwater Protection Scheme can be viewed as a layer over the Internet along with the data on the CD.

The entire 1:100,000 bedrock geology has also been up-loaded to the GSI web mapping service (http://193.178.1.182/website/gsi_multi/viewer.htm) for free viewing, querying and printing over the internet using only a standard web browser. This replaces the partial coverage that is currently available, limited to the southeast of Ireland, and it is envisaged will be a valuable free resource for many of our clients.

This project was a joint GIS development project by Eddie McMonagle of the GSI Cartography Unit and the staff of the Bedrock Programme