Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

134 Chapter 5: Land Figure 5.12  Coastal erosion near Kilmore, Co. Wexford Credit: David Dodd, DECC 6 www.water.ie/connections/developer-services/capacity-registers/water-supply-capacity-register/dublin/ (accessed 2 July 2024). Nationally, Ireland has high levels of water availability, but there are constraints on the water supply in more densely populated areas, particularly along the east coast, which might affect residential and commercial development. Uisce Éireann’s water supply capacity register 6 shows that, while there is capacity for new connections in the Dublin area, there are limits on the level of service available and that water conservation orders are likely until the development of new supplies. Examination of the 2018 drought identified that, while the drought occurred on a national scale, its impacts varied: eastern regions reported a reduction in harvested biomass, while western uplands and bogs in the midlands produced more biomass (Falzoi et al ., 2019). Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment (Thorne et al. , 2023) projects increases in the frequency and severity of droughts which may impact regional agricultural and forestry land use and ecosystems. The Office of Public Works has modelled the risk for coastal and river flooding. An analysis of the coastal flood risk overlain on the National Land Cover Map shows that the types of land cover most likely to be impacted by coastal flooding include the typical land cover classes that occur in coastal areas (sand dunes, saltmarshes, etc). Table 5.4 shows the areas of land cover types that are at risk from coastal flooding and river flooding under modelled high-probability scenarios. For coastal flooding, typical coastal land cover types such as saltmarshes and sand dunes are at risk. This assessment provides a high-level summary of the types of land cover that are at risk of flooding, indicating the types of land use constraints that we will have to contend with as Ireland’s climate changes. Considering their relative extent in the National Land Cover Map, artificial areas are relatively more at risk from coastal and river flooding than other land cover types. Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment (Thorne et al. , 2023) noted the importance of developing plans – particularly for the built environment and coastal environments – to develop a climate-resilient Ireland.