Uncategorized
Galway researchers preparing for nature’s assault on coastline
Galway’s identity is historically and contemporarily intertwined with the coast, according to NUI Galway researchers Dr Eugene Farrell and Dr Kevin Lynch, and it is incumbent upon the University to provide tools and forums that facilitate increased awareness and appreciation of this natural resource.
Since the winter storms of 2013/14, which caused millions of euros worth of damage to the country’s coastline, the power of the sea and the destruction it can cause has not been far from the minds of Galway citizens, or the people of Ireland in general.
“The monetary impact was obviously huge. To a large extent this was due to flooding and damage to infrastructure like promenades, carparks, roads, seawalls,” said Dr Lynch.
“One of the reasons for this is what we call ‘coastal squeeze’, which means we have developed too close to the shoreline and do not allow enough room for natural processes to operate. Erosion is a natural process that only becomes a problem when we develop in areas that are soft coastline, which are naturally mobile (they erode and build depending on conditions).”
But, according to Dr Farrell and his colleague Dr Lynch who are both researchers in the subject, the winter storms in question were not the first of their kind, nor will they be the last if trends continue.
“Winter 2013/14 was unprecedented in terms of very severe weather. However, there is a caveat in that recent decades have also experienced winters with a very high frequency of storms: 2008, 2004, 1989, 1983, 1974,” said Dr Farrell.
“If these trends continue – as we expect if climate projections are true (sea level rise and increased frequency and intensity of Atlantic storms) – then there is a real threat that our country will not be able to pay to rebuild the coastal infrastructure or protect the coastal communities and industries.”
Dr Farrell spent 14 years in the United States, where he was part of very large coastal projects that were well-funded, well-managed and were incorporated into City and County Development plans. Most of the coastal states in the US have long-term monitoring programmes that map the rates of change of their coastline.
“After the winter storms of 2013/14 in Ireland, I quickly realised there was little or no equivalent monitoring data being collected for our coastal sedimentary environments. Without this data, it is very difficult to quantify the change or predict what future trends may occur,” Dr Farrell explained.
But Dr Farrell and Dr Lynch are aiming to change this with their research and wrote a proposal to establish a comprehensive monitoring programme in West Kerry. The Office of Public Works (OPW) were interested in the project and decided to support the work and the researchers are currently carrying out intense GPS surveying to gather data.
The project aims to provide a unique and invaluable benchmark to inform coastal management strategies on coping with the increased storminess predicted by future scenarios described in many climate models.
In their proposal, Dr Farrell and Dr Lynch wrote: “We need to be able to identify the system thresholds that will trigger the breakdown of our coastal system equilibria – especially as these large storm events are expected to occur more frequently as future climate change models predict, ultimately leading to increased coastal erosion and flooding risks.”
Public awareness is another important issue for Dr Farrell and Dr Lynch. One of their goals is to educate the public on the value of our coastline and they are doing this through their I Like Beaches project, which is a student-led project funded by EXPLORE, and in partnership with Galway City Council.
“The primary aim of the I Like Beaches project is to add value and awareness of the coastal and marine environment by designing and installing a series of environmental and scientific education boards,” said Dr Farrell.
The project developed new working partnerships between the university, the community and the local government and established the willingness of the public to learn about and participate in protecting Galway’s coastal resources. They are currently at the final stage of designing a series of signs that will be installed along Galway City Beaches, with the firm support of the City Council.
“It’s important that we are aware of how our beaches and coastal dunes work. What causes them to erode? How do they rebuild themselves? What happens when we intervene to try and fix things? I think the general public are very receptive to looking at beaches and dunes in a new way when they have all the relevant information before them,” said Dr Lynch.
Lots of conversations are discussing how the urban and coastal centres of Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway will be protected, but little has been spoken of how the urgent needs of rural communities who are facing elimination in some areas if the storms re-occur will be addressed, according to Dr Farrell.
“Part of our remit is to give these communities a voice and to give their managers the tools to manage their coastal resources efficiently,” he said.
Earlier this year, NUI Galway launched a new taught Masters programme called Coastal Marine Environments: Physical Processes, Policy and Practice, with the aim of training the next generation of scientists on how to understand our coasts to build.
“It seeks to challenge and facilitate students to engage with, but go beyond established scientific conceptual and theoretical perspectives, engage new ways of understanding the complexities of our evolving physical coastal and marine environments, and develop critical insights that can support policy and practice in sustaining these increasingly vulnerable environments.”
For more information on Dr Farrell and Dr Lynch’s work can be found HERE
Some 60 tourism companies from Ireland attended ‘Flavours of Ireland’ 2022 in London last week – including Connemara Wild Escapes, DK Connemara Oysters and Killary Fjord Boat Tours.
‘Flavours’ is Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators.
Now in its 20th year, ‘Flavours’ took place in the Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 global inbound tour operators who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
‘Flavours’ provides an excellent opportunity for the participating tourism providers from Galway and Ireland to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the key decision-makers in attendance.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has asked Galway City Council to roll back material alterations to the new City Development Plan proposed by councillors.
In July, elected members voted through a raft of changes to zonings in the Draft City Development Plan 2023-29, which went out on public display.
But the Planning Regulator has now warned City Hall that many of the proposed changes do not comply with the OPR’s recommendations, and are contrary to national planning guidelines.
The OPR specifically highlighted problems with proposals to rezone as residential land deemed at risk of flooding.
Anne Marie O’Connor, Deputy Regulator, wrote to the Council’s Planning Department outlining the OPR’s fresh advice on the changes to the draft plan proposed and approved by councillors.
The draft plan will come before elected members again this month.
Councillors will be asked to row back on some of their previous material alterations, which ran contrary to advice of the OPR.
Ms O’Connor said the OPR welcomed many of the changes made by the City Council in its draft plan. She said, however, that the OPR “has a number of outstanding concerns relating to the response of the planning authority to its recommendations and to a number of proposed material alterations relating to the zoning of lands”.
These relate to changes that conflict with national and regional objectives for compact growth; with legislative requirements regarding climate action and core strategies; and with rezoning land at risk of flooding.
The OPR highlighted a dozen or more material alterations by councillors that are “not consistent” with the National Planning Framework for compact growth.
These include re-zoning of land from agricultural or recreational and amenity to residential.
The changes voted on by councillors, the OPR noted, were done against the advice of the Council’s Chief Executive Brendan McGrath.
The OPR said the changes proposed by councillors represented a “piecemeal approach” to zoning and were “inconsistent” with national policy.
These comments related to proposed rezoning of land at Rahoon; Dublin Road; Quarry Road, Menlo; Ballindooley; off Circular Road; Menlo village; Roscam and Barna Woods.
The OPR also raised “significant concerns” over five material alterations proposed for residential zonings of land at Western Distributor Road; Terryland; Menlo Village; Headford Road and Barna Woods which are located within flood zones.
The approach by councillors “may place people and property at unnecessary risk from future flood events”, the OPR warned.
Ms O’Connor told planners that if the draft plan ignores the OPR advice or is at odds with its recommendations, the Council Chief Executive must inform the OPR in writing the reasons for doing so.
Save Roscam Peninsula in a 33-page submission to the draft plan echoed many of the concerns outlined by the OPR.
The Council has pencilled in four dates in November and December to approve the plan.
It will meet on November 21, 24 and 28 and December 1 when material alterations will be voted on individually.
This article first appeared in the print edition of the Galway City Tribune, November 4. You can support our journalism by subscribing to the Galway City Tribune HERE. The print edition is in shops every Friday.
JOHN HARNEY from Mountpleasant first joined the Ballinasloe Horse and Agriculture Show Committee, all of 60-years ago, on April 24, 1962. Both John and the show are still going strong as they celebrate their 183rd event on this Sunday. Here, he looks back on his involvement with this iconic show through the years.
THE Ballinasloe Show back in the early 1960s was going well with both the Showgrounds and Duggan Park both used for running the competitions.
My first introduction to the show was stewarding the pony competitions in the Mountpleasant end of the Duggan Park with the rest of the GAA field being used for trade stands.
At that time, it was a very big show with horses, ponies, cattle and sheep, pigs and fowl – also there was a big garden and farm produce section as well as a home craft and baking section with flowers and plants supported by a very large women’s committee.
At that time, showjumping took place in the afternoon with the top riders in the country taking part. I was elected Chairman at the AGM in 1975, a position I held for ten years.
During that time, the Duggan Park Committee approached the Show Committee for a piece of the showgrounds behind the GAA Stand for dressing rooms.
This was brought up a number of times at our committee meetings, and at first, the view was that the Duggan Park Committee would buy the ground.
However, after much deliberation it was decided by the Show Committee to ‘give the ground’ for the sum of £1 with the proviso that the dressingrooms could be used on show days by the local ICA to do catering for the event.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
