01/08/2005

NI coastline information gets web makeover

Everything you could ever want to know about Northern Ireland’s coastline will soon be available at the click of a button thanks to new research from the University of Ulster.

Dr Derek Jackson, from the Centre for Coastal and Marine Research, is developing an innovative online information system about the marine environment around the province's coastal waters.

The web-based digital atlas (Marine Irish Digital Atlas or MIDA) will contain a whole range of information from what plant and animal life exists off our shores to the make-up of the seabed. The digital atlas will link into the MIDA project in the Republic of Ireland based at University College Cork.

Dr Jackson said: “Currently in Northern Ireland no single source exists where people requiring coastal and marine information can go to in order to visualise and identify all relevant datasets and determine where to acquire them.

“The MIDA project will for the first time, allow marine information to be accessed easily by anyone from school children right up to academic institutions.”

The web-based MIDA system, when complete, will be a unique tool, incorporating text and multimedia elements related to coastal and marine resources in Ireland north and south.

The full working system will be in operation by mid-2007, however, the current MIDA system for the Republic of Ireland can be accessed at www.mida.ucc.ie.

(MB/SP)

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