Report is one of the key outputs of phase one of the National Land Use Review
Main Report Structure: • Chapter 1. Current Land Cover, Land Use, and Trends • Chapter 2. Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land • Chapter 3. Climate Change Scenarios and Impacts • Chapter 4. Land Use Scenarios for Net-Zero • Chapter 5. Land Use Change Impacts: Synergies and Trade-offs • Chapter 6. Options to Support Policy Development
Irish Natural Capital Accounting for Sustainable Environments (INCASE) is an EPA-funded research project. It kicked off in March 2019 and will run until 2023.
INCASE is the first Irish project to develop natural capital accounts for different sites in Ireland.
The project team will prepare accounts for four catchments across Ireland using the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) Central Framework and SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounts guidelines.
Accounts for the four catchments will map the stocks and flows of ecosystem and geosystem services, highlight challenges, knowledge and data gaps, and recommend a framework to operationalise Natural Capital Accounting in Ireland.
Selecting the catchments
To choose the catchments for the project, we knew we wanted consider catchments that capture the flow from ‘mountains to sea’. We knew that if we wanted to scale up natural capital accounting nationally, we should choose catchments that already had reliable, nationally-available datasets. We wanted to maximise stakeholder engagement and synergies with existing projects so that we could gather as much as possible on the catchments in question. Our other considerations included geology, soils, climate, land-use, population, infrastructure and pressures. With all that in mind, we held a catchment selection workshop in November 2019 at which we decided on the four catchments listed below.
Produce a literature review on natural capital accounting to explore the various methodologies that are in use around the world.
Identify available data sources a;ong with data gaps. These data sources will inform the accounts, and contribute to the development of a framework for Natural Capital Accounting in Ireland.
Professor Jane Stout ofTrinity College Dublin leads this Work Package.
Collate existing datasets and develop indicators, and use them to generate a range of ecosystem accounts that describe habitat condition, habitat extent, as well as environmental flow accounts that might include water, land use and carbon.
Use these case studies to test the strengths and weaknesses of the accounts, and identify the data gaps.
Develop a framework to guide the appropriate use of monetary valuation and determine how these values can be integrated with existing economic and environmental policies to inform decision-making. While these accounts do not necessarily require monetary valuation, we will assess the efficacy of monetising the benefits to people that certain ecosystem services provide.
Professor Mary Kelly Quinn of University College Dublin leads this Work Package.
Phase 3 – Economic Analysis:
Use an input-output model to assess the impact of policy change on natural capital stocks.
Use data visualisations to produce sectoral natural capital management frameworks.
Produce a gap analysis of information monitoring systems and policies underpinning them.
Conduct economic impact assessments to better understand the trade-offs between policy options.
Professor Stephen Kinsella of the University of Limerick and Professor Cathal O’Donoghue of NUI Galway each lead portions of this Work Package.
UCD SWAMP aims to investigate the pressures on Irish waters from drained peatlands and develop mitigation measures
“This project is funded under the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020. The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.”
The primary objective of SWAMP is to develop an interdisciplinary approach to quantify the pressures on waters arising from drained/extracted peatlands and develop appropriate regulatory measures, sustainable land use management and innovative technologies to ensure the status of water bodies is protected, maintained or improved in line with the requirements of national and international environmental standards. The key objectives of the project are as follows:
• To improve our understanding of the hydrology, hydrogeology, water balances and nutrient exports from drained and extracted peatlands.
• To investigate the impacts and pressures on water quality (chemistry, aquatic biota and hydromorphology) arising from the drainage and mining of peatlands by identifying contaminants pressure zones and assessing the significance and extent of these environmental impacts vis-à-vis the Water Framework Directive and Flood Directive targets.
• To evaluate environmental protection measures in order to develop best practices guidelines by appraising and developing a) robust water purification methods and b) sustainable land-use management practices including restoration/rewetting and after-use of cutaway/cutover bogs.
Note: DROPLET data has not been updated recently in light of the on-going EPA redevelopment works carried out on the database
Includes title of research project, principal investigator, institution/University, funding entity, project stat/end dates, duration of research, keywords and project abstract.
While incomplete, it is a useful starting point for anyone interested in Irish water research
This list comes with a major caveat, in that it is manually extracted from the EPAs DROPLET database which is not always reliable due to its ‘in redevelopment’ status and it is not up-to-date at the moment (estimate it is approx two years out of date in some areas)
But you can view a list of the organisations who have submitted projects in the list below:
Fires, Land and Atmospheric Remote Sensing of EmissionS (FLARES) aims to develop systematic approaches to the acquisition and collation of a range of data on agricultural and uncontrolled wildland burning burn events from satellite datasets.
These will be validated by in situ observations, and measurement of relevant emission factors for Irish wildfires, with the objective of improving the accuracy and reducing uncertainty in the quantification of annual greenhouse gas and particulate emissions.
The work builds on previous EPA-funded work to characterise upland habitats from satellite imagery, thus enabling the type of vegetation burned to be identified, and biomass lost to be calculated. The reliability of existing satellite and ground datasets will be evaluated, and proposals made for future operational air quality monitoring by drawing on the inter-disciplinary approaches of the Earth Observation and Atmospheric Chemistry expertise within the consortium.
Start: 01/03/2019 End (if applicable): 29/02/2020 Revised End Date (if applicable): 31/05/2021
EPA Project Type
Desk Study
EPA Award Type
STRIVE – Project Based Awards
Current Project Status
Grant Awarded
Total Funding Amount
99937.37
Project Abstract/Description
The aim of the DESIGN project is to identify the state of the art and best practice in the effective (high sensitivity, high specificity) detection and identification of pathogen (VTEC and Cryptosporidium) sources and assess what methods can be used to understand the contamination pathways of waterborne infectious diseases. Building on existing research from project partners on groundwater source susceptibility, a stochastic QMRA and Environmental Fate Model will be created for (i) the relative risk of the contamination of private wells with VTEC (using a newly derived pathogenicity ratio) and (ii) the seasonal distribution of likely VTEC contamination. Furthermore, a preliminary sampling regime will be developed to explicitly assess the presence of Cryptosporidium in Irish groundwater and identify sources and transport mechanisms; one of the first studies of its kind. DESIGN has a stakeholder focus, and aims to create non-technical research summaries to improve communication with policy makers, local authorities and the general public. Through the utilisation of past and ongoing complimentary research and the expertise of project partners, this frontier research represents added value for money and will provide a stepping stone towards the development of bespoke groundwater management strategies to move towards a Healthy Ireland. The following outputs are expected from DESIGN, at a minimum: – 1 Final Report for dissemination on the EPA website – 3 peer reviewed research papers, 1 peer-reviewed review paper. – Non-technical summaries are a specified outcome of the DESIGN project in order to allow for impactful stakeholder interaction – A strong social media presence, and increased exposure through the utilisation of ‘The Earth Story’; a hugely popular (~1 million followers), award winning blog which is ran by Jean O’Dwyer (PI). – Research capacity building is a direct outcome of the DESIGN project by create a symbiosis between the Environmental Institute (ERI), UCC, the Environmental Sustainability and Health Institute (ESHI), DIT and the Department of Microbiology, NUIG. – Oral and poster presentations at national and international meetings and conferences. – Project webpage, media publicity, online blogs – Calibrated predictive multivariate statistical and empirical base models for real-time and future sampling frame inclusion. – Novel incidence ratio of VTEC to non-VTEC derived from Irish private water wells.
Start: 01/03/2019 End (if applicable): 29/02/2020 Revised End Date (if applicable): 29/08/2020
EPA Project Type
Desk Study
EPA Award Type
STRIVE – Project Based Awards
Current Project Status
Grant Awarded
Total Funding Amount
70093.80
Project Abstract/Description
Constructed wetlands (CW) are increasingly employed for leachate treatment as part of closure planning for mine sites; however their life expectancy and longevity of performance is relatively unknown and no long-term studies have been carried out in Ireland. This proposed study will develop an international database on the use of CW systems treating mine wastes with the objective of identifying key operating parameters and longevity of such systems. Through sampling and analysis of established CW systems at Boliden Tara Pb/Zn mine and Rusal Aughinish alumina processing plant, a series of soil saturation index studies will contribute to our understanding of the removal mechanisms for contaminants of concern. Additionally the influence of leachate characteristics (e.g. pH, suspended solids, predominance of metal types) on removal efficiencies will be investigated. Understanding the capacity of CW systems to treat these complex metal mixtures will contribute to assessing their expected lifespan and the requirements for intervention and management post-closure. This project directly relates to the current EPA research strategy, in particular its requirement to mitigate the negative environmental, social and health impacts of the raw materials sector. This project will produce a report and database (placed in the EPA SAFER database) of key wetland process parameters and operational mechanisms, a final project report, three peer reviewed publications and a conference presentation. In addition, a post-project dissemination workshop will take place involving interested parties from bodies such as the EPA, BRAVO – Critical Raw Materials, and the research community. The project will also enable research capacity building where outputs are expected to contribute to proposal submission for upscaling and translating into demonstration pilots with industry partners, e.g. ERA-MIN submission.
