Soil Fertility matters!
Soil fertility is a key factor in sustainable agriculture and ecosystem health. See more at the Teagasc website
Irish Soils Information System - Phase 1 complete!
The Irish Soils Information system (Phase 1) was launched by Minister Brendan Howlin at Johnstown Castle, Wexford on Sept 15th, 2014
Through the Project web site you are able to access a range of downloadable products providing access to legacy historical soil survey activities in Ireland, as well as direct outputs from the Irish Soil Information System project itself, which has led to the production of the new national soil map for Ireland. In addition to accessing relevant projects documents, you are also able to access the data as a digital data service, such that it can be integrated into your own analyses and web applications. This is achieved through the project's web ‘Application Programming Interface’, or API.
The following data are made available here for free. Please refer to the Terms of Use before downloading and using this information.
Information is available for soil representative profile site and horizon information, including field observations and analytical determinations made in the soil laboratory. Data is returned as JSON data structure that can be used by JavaScript and other web programming languages for direct access to the data. Data will also be made available in CSV format. Please refer to the Terms of Use before downloading and using this information.
| Full list of soil associations | get_all_associations.php |
| Full list of soil series | get_all_series.php |
| Individual soil association - full details | get_associations.php?assoc_id=<association id> |
| Individual soil series - full details | get_series.php?series_id=<series id> |
| Full soil series details plus representative site and horizon information | get_series_full.php?series_code=<series_id> |
A downloadable guide to the data included in the services listed above is available here.
The following data downloads are made available here for access. These files may be subject to change as our products are further developed. Please refer to the Terms of Use before downloading and using this information.
Guidance on the use of these shapefiles is included with each zip file, in the file labelled IrishSoilMap_Readme.txt, or you can view the usage guidelines here.
| Dataset | File format | Download link |
|---|---|---|
| All of Ireland | Shapefile ING | IrishSoilMap250k_1b.zip (94MB) |
| Northern region | Shapefile ING | IrishSoilMap250k_North_1b.zip (19MB) |
| Southern region | Shapefile ING | IrishSoilMap250k_South_1b.zip (34MB) |
| Eastern region | Shapefile ING | IrishSoilMap250k_East_1b.zip (32MB) |
| Western region | Shapefile ING | IrishSoilMap250k_West_1b.zip (38MB) |
| County/Region | County Report | County Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Carlow | Carlow_Report.zip | Carlow_Maps.zip |
| Cavan | n/a | n/a |
| Clare | Clare_Report.zip | Clare_Maps.zip (15MB) |
| Cork | WestCork_Report.zip | WestCork_Maps.zip |
| Donegal | Donegal_Report.zip | Donegal_Maps.zip (15MB) |
| Dublin | n/a | n/a |
| Galway | n/a | n/a |
| Kerry | Kerry_Report.zip | Kerry_Maps.zip |
| Kildare | Kildare_Report.zip | Kildare_Maps.zip (12MB) |
| Kilkenny | n/a | n/a |
| Laois | Laois_Report.zip | Laois_Maps.zip (17MB) |
| Leitrim | Leitrim_Report.zip (34MB) | Leitrim_Maps.zip |
| Limerick | Limerick_Report.zip | Limerick_Maps.zip (20MB) |
| Longford | n/a | n/a |
| Louth | n/a | n/a |
| Mayo | n/a | WestMayo_Maps.zip (12MB) |
| Meath | n/a | n/a |
| Monaghan | n/a | n/a |
| Offaly | Offaly_Report.zip | Offaly_Maps.zip (20MB) |
| Roscommon | n/a | n/a |
| Sligo | n/a | n/a |
| Tipperary | Tipperary_Report.zip | Tipperary_Maps.zip (14MB) |
| Waterford | n/a | n/a |
| Westmeath | Westmeath_Report.zip | Westmeath_Maps.zip (18MB) |
| Wexford | Wexford_Report.zip | Wexford_Maps.zip (21MB) |
| Wicklow | n/a | n/a |
The following project technical reports are made available here for access. Please refer to the Terms of Use before downloading and using this information. The primary formal project reports with full, searchable metadata will also be made available through the EPA SAFER website when completed.
| Report | File format | Download link |
|---|---|---|
| Project Synthesis Report | EPA_RR130_PRINT.pdf (10MB) | |
| Interim Classification, Harmonisation and Generalisation of County Soil Maps | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_1_RED.pdf (11MB) | |
| Interim Classification and Rationalisation of soil series in Ireland | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_2.pdf | |
| Soilscapes for Terra Cognita Ireland | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_3.pdf | |
| Soilscapes Extrapolation (Terra Incognita) Ireland | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_4.pdf (19MB) | |
| Predictive Mapping | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_5.pdf (17MB) | |
| User Guide for Representative Profile Capture System | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_6.pdf | |
| Irish Soil Information System: Laboratory Standard Operating Procedures | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_7.pdf | |
| Soil Profile Handbook | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_10.pdf | |
| Methodology for Validation of Predictive Mapping | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_11.pdf | |
| Multiple Classifier System | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_12.pdf | Systems Analysis and Design | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_14.pdf |
| Irish Soil Information System: SISCore Data Model | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_15.pdf | |
| Building the Database | SIS_Final_Technical_Report_16.pdf |