Forest Inventory and Planning System (FIPS), this spatial dataset was derived from automatic
classification and on-screen interpretation of Landsat TM imagery (1993–1997), panchromatic
orthophotos (1995), and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) 25-inch map series [58]. Forest
boundaries were digitised to within 2m accuracy of the orthophotos and the OSi 25-inch map
series. In 1998, records of private afforestation since 1980, based on digitisation of hardcopy
maps and OSi orthophoto interpretation were appended to the FIPS dataset. Since then, all
newly afforested areas in receipt of grant payments have been added to this dataset on an
annual basis. For the purposes of this study, all post 2010 afforestation areas were removed
from the current dataset, along with any non-forest land cover areas, to create Forestry2010