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Ireland’s Environment – An Assessment 2016
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Establishing and implementing an integrated
national land cover, land use and habitat mapping
programme is essential to assist in reporting and
assessing the impact of different land cover and
land use types on the environment.
By integrating
the National Landscape Strategy into land use planning,
sustainable landscape management practices can also be
progressed. For the urban environment the challenge is
to design a future urban environment with public appeal
that incorporates climate-proofing aspects, such as better
outcomes to tackle flooding while minimising the impact
on the wider environment, along with green areas and
wild spaces for wildlife and people, while also meeting the
needs of society. Forward strategic planning for land use
and new infrastructure is needed to ensure that growth
is sustainable and does not add to the environmental
pressures that are already evident, such as the gradual loss
of wetlands over the past two decades or capacity issues in
delivering drinking water and treating urban waste water.
We need to develop new approaches to be able
to tackle systemic and emerging environmental
risks effectively.
Many specific environmental issues are
regulated on a site by site basis, for example the licensing
of an industrial facility or the management of a protected
area. However, across the wider environment there are also
systemic risks, such as diffuse water pollution or decline in
species populations that need different and new approaches
to resolve. The provision of timely environmental data is
crucial to the early identification of these wider risks.
Restore and Protect
Water Quality
Implement Measures that Achieve Ongoing
Improvement in the Environmental Status of
Water Bodies from Source to the Sea
Water protection measures are needed to ensure
that we continue to have healthy rivers, lakes and
estuaries and clean beaches in order to protect
human health, to preserve fish and biodiversity
and to allow our important water resources to be a
driver for sustainable jobs and tourism.
We are still a
long way from meeting the full legal requirements of the
Water Framework Directive, against which water quality
is measured. Preliminary results indicate that there has
been no overall improvement in water quality over the
first river basin cycle (2009‑2015). The target of a 13.6%
improvement in the ecological status of surface waters
(from the 2009 baseline) by 2015 was not achieved. Water
quality improvements are required at approximately 50%
of rivers, lakes and estuaries that are impacted by pollution
or other pressures. The two main suspected causes of
pollution in rivers are agriculture and municipal sources,
accounting for 53% and 34% of cases, respectively.
Physical modifications, such as barriers to fish migration,
are also a key pressure that needs to be tackled. While
overall the length of unpolluted river channel has remained
relatively constant, there has been a substantial loss in the
number of highest quality river sites (i.e. Q value of 5). In
the most recent monitoring period (2013‑2015) only 21
sites were classified as the highest quality river sites (0.7%
of sites) compared with 575 between 1987 and 1990
and 82 between 2001 and 2003. This is an area where
substantial effort is required to protect the few remaining
sites and, where feasible, return impacted ones back to
their earlier extremely high quality.
Urban waste water is still one of the principal
pressures on water quality in Ireland.
There is a
need for continued investment in waste water treatment
facilities. This investment is needed to provide, upgrade
and manage the sewer networks and treatment facilities
necessary to treat sewage and industrial water to the
standard needed to protect human health, and water
quality in our rivers, lakes and coastal areas.
One of the measures being implemented to improve
and protect water quality is the use of a new risk-
based approach to managing water catchments.
This new approach will require much better targeting of
interventions to restore and protect water quality as well
as a greater community involvement in protecting and
managing our water resources.
Ireland’s marine environment has remained relatively
unpolluted; however, the level of environmental
stress both from internal and external sources has
increased.
The sustainability of fish catches continues to
be an issue; 36% are considered to be sustainably fished.
Overfished stocks have declined to 26%, and 38% remain
at an unknown status. Untreated sewage is discharged
at 36 estuarine or coastal locations. Overall, 71% (46 out
of 65) of the urban areas that have inadequate treatment
or do not meet mandatory EU standards, discharged to
estuarine or coastal locations in 2015. Marine litter is
now a global issue and the impacts can be seen on even
the remotest of our beaches. While litter is a key marine
environment and biodiversity challenge, its generation and
prevention are linked to a variety of human activities and
policy areas. Successful implementation of a comprehensive
targeted waste policy is a prerequisite to avoid plastic litter
entering the marine environment.
Other stresses on our coastal environment are
wider and link to the impacts of climate change.
From a climate perspective, rising sea temperature, ocean
deoxygenation, rising sea levels and ocean acidification
(the effects of which are being seen in Irish waters) are
major causes of concern worldwide. The rich coastal marine
grasses and kelp forests are significant carbon sinks (as well
as important biodiversity reservoirs) that need protection and