Northern Ireland Coastal Orthophotography from 2021 3D Survey

Northern Ireland's entire coastline is covered by this natural colour orthophotography dataset, extending approximately 200 meters landward from the high water mark and including the intertidal zone. The imagery was captured in 2021 as part of a 3D coastal survey and has been ortho-rectified to remove geometric distortion, providing a uniform 10cm ground resolution. This dataset offers a detailed, geometrically accurate visual baseline for coastal analysis.

Use Cases

• Coastal erosion monitoring based on high-resolution visual time-series comparison
• Habitat and land cover classification in the intertidal zone using uniform-scale imagery
• Infrastructure planning and asset management for areas within 200 meters of the coast
• Validating and augmenting 3D topographic LiDAR data from the same survey

Strengths

• Provides a uniform geometric scale across the entire dataset due to ortho-rectification
• Offers high spatial detail with a stated ground resolution of 10 centimeters
• Has cross-platform presence, indicating recognized utility and availability

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; column names, row counts, and file sizes are unknown across all sources
• The stated last update date of 2026-04-15 is likely a metadata refresh, not a data update, as the survey was conducted in 2021
• Spatial coverage is limited to a narrow coastal strip, not a broader regional area

Provenance

Source

OpenDataNI

Collection Method

Aerial imagery capture as part of the 2021 NI 3D Coastal Survey, followed by ortho-rectification processing

Time Range

2021

Freshness

2026-04-15 14:20:09.622033 (from uk_data platform, likely a metadata update)

Geography

The entire coastline of Northern Ireland, including intertidal area and ~200 meters landward of the high water mark