EPA Map – Targeting Agricultural Measures

A farmer-friendly EPA Map on Targeting Agricultural Measures is now available, which has just the key information that will help farmers and other landholders understand their local water quality and where action needs to be taken.

This map has layers with information on:

• Water Quality Status and Monitoring Stations
• Targeting Agricultural Measures
  • Targeting Agricultural Measures: this layer shows which actions by farmers have the greatest potential to improve water quality for each area in the country. Where agricultural measures are needed to restore water quality, one or more colours indicate the types of water quality issues in that area:
    • Navy – Phosphorus/Sediment losses
    • Navy and Orange: Phosphorus/Sediment and Nitrate losses
    • Orange: Nitrate losses
    • Red, Orange and Navy– Point Source, Nitrate and Phosphorus/Sediment losses
    • White: Protect measures
  • River Agriculture Pressures – this layers shows all river waterbodies in Ireland where agriculture is a significant pressure. A significant agricultural pressure can be diffuse and/or point source of pollution. Agricultural pressures are subcategorised into pasture, arable, farmyard and agriculture. Many of our waterbodies have multiple significant pressures.
• Pollution Impact Potential Maps for Nitrogen/Freely draining soils
• Pollution Impact Potential Maps for Phosphorus/Heavy soils
  • This includes the Pollution Impact Potential Map for phosphorus, and additional layers for overland flow pathways and delivery points which can be used to target interception measures.

You can access the map here: https://gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/agriculture

About the Pollution Impact Potential (PIP) Maps for nitrogen and phosphorus

Teagasc Signpost Seminar – Water quality and agriculture – challenges and opportunities

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EPA Water Map

The EPA Water Map has more layers available, with detailed information on:

• Water, Land and Soil
• Protected Areas
• Monitoring and Flow
• Status & Risk
• Pressures and Activities
• Taking Action

The EPA Water Map can be found here:

https://gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/Water

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Learn more:

On this page we have information on:

• YouTube videos on how to use the EPA Water Map, and its Pollution Impact Potential Map layers for Nitrogen and Phosphorus
• Map layers and categories
• How to switch on the satellite images for your map
• Adjusting how your layers look and understanding what they mean
• Some of the tools:
  • Search by Eircode, address, county/town or coordinates so you can easily find where you live
  • Measurement and drawing tools
  • How to print your map

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Map layers and categories

Any layer can be switched on by using the menu at the top of the map.

The categories and layers are:

• Water, Land and Soil
  • Water: includes water features like catchments, subcatchments, river sub-basins and water bodies, along with river flow and river network layers
  • Geography: counties, local authority areas and settlements
  • Hydrogeology: GSI bedrock and gravel aquifers, GSI Vulnerability
  • Soil: Subsoils and susceptibility maps for nitrate and phosphate
• Protected Areas
  • Drinking Water, Recreational Waters (designated Bathing Waters for swimming), Shellfish, Salmonid, Conservation Areas (SACs, SPAs)
• Monitoring and Flow
  • Q Values – river ecology monitoring results from 1971 to present
  • Flows and Levels – both monitored and modelled, with links to all active hydrometric monitoring gauges
  • National Monitoring Stations
• Status and Risk
  • Bathing Water Quality – this is updated during the bathing season which runs form 1 June to 15 September and includes links to www.beaches.ie, which has information on water quality, tides, accessibility and weather for all designated Bathing Waters
  • WFD Risk 3rd Cycle
  • WFD Status 2016-2021
  • WFD Status 2013-2018
  • WFD Risk 2nd Cycle
  • WFD 2010-2015
  • High Status Objective water bodies
• Pressures and Activities
  • Significant Pressures for river, lake, transitional and coastal water bodies
  • Pollution Impact Potential Maps
  • EPA Licensed Activities – Urban Waste Water, waste and Industrial facilities
• Taking Action
  • Stories – these are all stories from catchments.ie, showing how local communities and public bodies are working to protect and restore water quality in Ireland
  • WFD Areas for Action – this shows the Priority Areas for Action that are being focused on by the Local authority Waters Programme. Further details on all Areas for Action are available at www.catchments.ie/data/#/areaforaction
  • Catchment Projects: areas where there are already projects ongoing at catchment scale, or where funding or plans are in place, which will have benefits for water quality protection/restoration during WFD Cycle 3. They include community initiatives (like Rivers Trusts), LIFE, EIP, INTERREG and public body research projects.
  • Targeting Agricultural Measures: Where agricultural measures are needed to restore water quality, the Subbasin are highlighted with one or more coloured flags to indicate the types of water quality issues associated with that Subbasin.

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Satellite Images

This means you can see satellite imagery for any area. This baser layer can be accessed by clicking the three dots in the lower right of the map and selecting ‘Bing Maps’.

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Adjusting how your layers look

Once you switch a layer on, you can change how it looks by clicking the ‘Active Layer’ menu on the left of the map.

New tools for search, measurement and drawing

Search tools: You can now search by Address, Eircode, County/Town and Coordinates. You can access these by clicking the Magnifying Glass in the top right or by clicking the tools menu on the left of the maps

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The Tools Menu: Search for a water feature, measure and draw on your map

The tools menu can be accessed from the left hand side of the map.

The tools menu includes the following:

• Search Water Feature: you can search for any river, lake, estuary, coastal water, catchment or subcatchment using this
• Search Tools – this is another way to access the Eircode/County/Coordinates search shown above already
• Measurement Tools
• Graphic Tools -these allow you to draw on the map

Measurement tools

Graphic tools

These tools allow you to draw on the map and to add text. You can also print your map after you have added a drawing or text.

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Print Map

This allows you to print the map on screen, along with any shapes or text you may have drawn on the map with the Graphic Tools. You can do this by clicking on the Print Map icon in the bottom right of the Maps.