The Environmental Sensitivity Mapping (ESM) Webtool has been developed to support Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Ireland. Its purpose is to support practitioners (e.g. Local Authority planners, consultants) when undertaking SEA by enabling a rapid and systematic spatial examination of environmental sensitivities. To facilitate this, a centralised and dedicated interface has been created to provide an evidence-base that can be quantitatively and/or geographically examined. More importantly, the ESM Widget included in the Webtool enables "on the fly" weighted linear combination of selected environmental datasets to produce context-specific sensitivity maps.
The Widget is based on participative approaches, allowing end-users to select relevant environmental factors that address specific issues associated with the assessment of a given plan/programme, and to input their perceptions on the relative importance of each selected factor. In this way, it enables simultaneous spatial assessment of multiple environmental considerations and their importance weights to highlight sensitive environmental areas. The mapped outputs provide early warning of potential land-use conflicts to inform SEA. The ultimate aim of the Webtool is to contribute to enhancing environmental assessment transparency and effectiveness across planning hierarchies and sectors. A number of workshops have already ascertained the validity and applicability of the Webtool and Widget.
