Co-design of a regional geoportal to support research, policy, education, and practice on environment and health in Northern Ireland

Researchers and policymakers can avoid inefficient methods of data collation that use and rely upon individual city administrative sources, and instead harness consistently collected, environmental datasets using geospatial technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), in situ surveying, and derived datasets from spatial analytical methods. However, these data sources are often held by different data 'owners' and are at various scales and formats. This case study details the co-design and development of a regional geoportal to support research, policy, education, and practice on environment and health. Two co-design workshops with 40 multi-sectoral stakeholders helped inform the design, content, functionality, and format of the geoportal. We configured a Hub site on ArcGIS Online (AGOL) to serve as an interface that allowed users to connect with an online catalogue of data and a map viewer. The free, open access geoportal resource houses over 80 datasets across Northern Ireland. The geoportal offers an effective way for stakeholders to access data relating to a wide range of environmental variables, such as land cover, climate, infrastructure, air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, and access to green space that affect health.