Good practice:

Environmental Sensitivity Mapping (ESM) Webtool

For SEA to effectively inform planning processes, a systematic and accessible approach that includes the best available spatial information and ensures comparability between assessments is key. Development pressures on the landscape need to be efficiently examined and the potential for cumulative effects on the environment must be considered. The ESM Webtool enables the creation of environmental sensitivity maps that capture the accumulated concentration of sensitive environmental features on the landscape, which help to address some of these challenges and direct development to suitable locations.

The ESM Webtool provides an opportunity to streamline assessments by centralising information, facilitating public participation, enabling the rapid creation of plan-specific maps and providing a robust evidence-base to inform spatial planning. It supports planners and SEA practitioners by enabling a systematic spatial examination of environmental considerations and their vulnerability or sensitivity, as required under the SEA Directive. To ensure that context-specific considerations are factored in, users are prompted to select environmental criteria relevant to the plan/programme under preparation and assessment, and to assign weights that capture public concerns to such criteria. The Webtool’s aim is to enhance consistency and transparency in impact assessments across planning hierarchies and sectors, as well as to facilitate participative and accountable decision-making.

The Webtool was developed by researchers at University College Dublin and the All-Island Research Observatory, with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and Office of the Planning Regulator, and hosting by Ordnance Survey Ireland. Total funding for development and testing was €306,000.

The ESM Webtool has contributed to the development of Irish national policy through the National Planning Framework and associated SEA and the development of the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies and associated SEAs for the three Regional Assemblies in Ireland. It is currently being used to support the preparation of County Development Plans and accompanying Socio-Economic Profiles, as well contributing to other planning decisions and actions (e.g.,Counties Kildare and Cork).

The ESM Webtool has changed environmental assessment and planning practice in Ireland. It provides an invaluable resource for SEA by facilitating combined exploration and analysis of multiple spatial datasets. By highlighting the location of natural assets, their overlap and vulnerability, 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 provides evidence to protect lands with significant ecosystem value from insensitive land zoning designations.

For other regions, the Webtool can serve as a methodological foundation and systematic approach to promote informed impact assessment and plan-making. It can be used as an empirical basis to promote and develop best practice in the implementation of EU Directives and reinforce consideration of their obligations to improve landscape governance for economic and environmental sustainability.