Table 1
Comparison of Ireland Nearest Analysis with existing approaches.
| FEATURE/CAPABILITY | QGIS NATIVE TOOLS | MANUAL WORKFLOW/SCRIPTS | IRELAND NEAREST ANALYSIS PLUGIN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remote service integration | Supported for standard OGC services (and limited ArcGIS REST support) | Requires custom API handling | Direct integration with OGC services (WFS) and ArcGIS REST APIs |
| CRS standardisation | Manual CRS management required | Manual CRS management required | Automatically normalised to EPSG:29903 |
| Data preparation | Required prior to analysis | Required (multi-step preprocessing) | Integrated within workflow |
| Spatial filtering | Available but distributed across multiple tools | User-defined, often manual | Automated using user-defined analysis distance |
| Nearest-feature computation | Available (separate tools) | Requires custom implementation | Integrated with spatial indexing (QgsSpatialIndex) |
| Workflow automation | Supported via Model Builder, but not fully integrated | Possible but requires scripting | Fully automated within a single workflow |
| GUI accessibility | Moderate (requires navigating multiple tools) | Low (requires programming knowledge) | High (single unified interface) |
| Output generation | Flexible outputs; limited built-in visualisation for this workflow | Custom outputs via scripts | CSV export + graphical visualisation (Matplotlib) |
| Reproducibility | Dependent on user-defined workflow | Variable | High (standardised workflow) |
| Target context | General GIS | General GIS | Ireland-specific regulatory workflows (EPSG:29903) |
[i] OGC: Open Geospatial Consortium standards (e.g. WMS, WFS).
Figure 1
Architecture of the Ireland Nearest Analysis plugin, comprising four layers: user interface, data acquisition, spatial processing, and output generation. The system integrates remote geospatial services (WFS and ArcGIS REST) with QGIS processing components to perform nearest-feature analysis in EPSG:29903.
Figure 2
Workflow of the Ireland Nearest Analysis plugin in QGIS, including user input, CRS transformation to EPSG:29903, remote data retrieval and filtering, nearest-feature computation using spatial indexing, and output generation (CSV and visualisation).
Table 2
Performance characteristics of Ireland Nearest Analysis using WFS datasets.
| TEST CASE | BUFFER DISTANCE (KM) | REMOTE FEATURES ITERATED | FEATURES RETAINED (WITHIN BUFFER) | DATA RETRIEVAL TIME (S) | PROCESSING TIME (S) | PREPROCESSING TOTAL (S) | NEAREST SEARCH TIME (S) | OUTPUT GENERATION TIME (S) | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case 1 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 0.14 | 0.01 | 0.16 | – | – | No features found within buffer |
| Case 2 | 100 | 22 | 0 | 0.55 | 0.14 | 0.70 | – | – | No features found within buffer |
| Case 3 | 200 | 646 | 272 | 14.31 | 4.51 | 18.82 | <0.01 | 0.60 | Large dataset (EPA water bodies) |
| Case 4 | 30 | 164 | 119 | 4.41 | 1.37 | 5.79 | <0.01 | 0.48 | Medium dataset |
| Case 5 (cached) | 30 | – | 119 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | <0.01 | 0.48 | Cached preprocessing reused |
Figure 3
The user discovers and installs a plugin in the QGIS repository.
Figure 4
After installation, the plugin is opened. In the interface, the user selects the application area, remote dataset, output fields, and analysis distance.
Figure 5
After running the analysis, a map output is generated showing the application area, nearest feature, distance, azimuth and direction.
Figure 6
The same analysis results are exported as a CSV file for reporting and verification.