Latest Research Publications
Research 364: Learning from Group Water Schemes: Community Infrastructures for Sustainable Development
Authors: Patrick Bresnihan, Arielle Hesse and James Merricks White, January 2021
Year: 2021
The quality of many of Ireland’s freshwater sources is declining, impacting in turn the quality and affordability of Ireland’s drinking water services. This project examines the history and development of the group water scheme sector, identifying how and why it has been successful in providing essential water services to rural Ireland, and providing several key findings that have implications beyond the rural water sector.
Research 365: Developing Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas and Transboundary Air Pollution Monitoring Network
Authors: Damien Martin and Colin O’Dowd, January 2021
Year: 2021
The Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change (AC3) network is an established national research and monitoring infrastructure developed incrementally. It monitors greenhouse gases, short-lived climate forcers, and aerosol chemical and physical characteristics in line with best practice from pan-European and global monitoring programmes. This fellowship has enabled and sustained scientific operations for a national monitoring network.
Research 363: No Home for Plastic
Authors: Abigail O’Callaghan-Platt and Mindy O’Brien, January 2021
Year: 2021
Plastic has become a ubiquitous material globally. Research quantifying the amount of plastic in the environment has prompted calls for action to tackle the use of this problem material. Aiming to reduce individual plastic consumption, this research revealed practical barriers to behaviour change including a lack of easy access to plastic-free options, the cost of plastic-free shopping and a lack of information on plastic-free options.
Research 362: Evaluating Ireland’s Climate Policy Performance
Authors: Sabrina Dekker and Diarmuid Torney, January 2021
Year: 2021
To date, Ireland’s climate change policy response has not delivered sufficient progress. The central objectives of this project were to construct a policy evaluation framework that builds on a standard EU evaluation framework and to undertake evaluations of climate change policies across all sectors using the framework, with a specific focus on key policies.
Research 361: The State of the Art on the Potential Human Health Impacts of Microplastics and Nanoplastics
Authors: Imen Gdara, Jenny Lawler, Anthony Staines and Sandra O’Neill , January 2021
Year: 2021
Human exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics through inhalation, ingestion and dermal exposure is an emerging health concern. Designing studies to assess the health effects of these exposures is challenging. Until these studies are conducted, governments should revise directives and policies on food, water and air to include MPs/NPs, to remove the potential for plastic to contaminate the food chain and our environment.
Our Environment, Our Health, Our Wellbeing: Access to Blue/Green Spaces in Ireland
Authors: SHEER Wellbeing Project Team: Christine Domegan, Gesche Kindermann, Niall Ó Brolcháin, Easkey Britton, Caitriona Carlin, Edobor Osagie, Mark O’Loughlin, Martin Cormican, Fiona Donovan, Maurice Mulcahy, Angela Sice, Courtney Yanta and Diarmuid O’Donovan, January 2021
Year: 2021
This study aimed to explore the key forces and patterns at work in relation to access to blue/green spaces in Ireland and possible impacts in national, regional and local contexts through data analytics, visualisation and mapping.
Research 360: Methodologies for Financing and Costing of Climate Impacts and Future Adaptation Actions: Transport Networks in Ireland
Authors: Julie Clarke, Enrique Acosta and Heidi Brede, January 2021
Year: 2021
Climate change is happening on a global scale, and Ireland is seeing its detrimental effects. Increased stress owing to changing weather patterns and extreme storm events is and will have an impact on the transport infrastructure network. Developing resilient methodologies that quantify the social, economic and environmental costs of climate change impacts can support a decision-making framework and provide cost effective solutions.
Research 347: Assessment of the Impact of Ammonia Emissions from Intensive Agriculture Installations on Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas
Authors: David B. Kelleghan, Enda T. Hayes, Mark Everard and Thomas P. Curran, December 2020
Year: 2020
Atmospheric ammonia poses a significant threat to biodiversity and human health. Concentrations of ammonia in the air downwind of hotspot sources, such as pig and poultry farms, are likely to negatively affect the environment. This project quantified and assessed the impact of ammonia emissions from intensive pig and poultry units in Ireland by monitoring detailed ammonia emissions from 17 animal production houses across four farms.
Research 359: Modelling Irish Transitional and Coastal Systems to Determine Nutrient Reduction Measures to Achieve Good Status
Authors: Joseph V. McGovern, Stephen Nash and Michael Hartnett, December 2020
Year: 2020
In this project three Irish estuaries were modelled with the aim of quantifying the impact on water quality of existing nutrient loading from direct and diffuse inputs. Recommendations on the necessary nutrient load reductions to improve estuarine water quality and the appropriate pressure to target in nutrient load reductions for the three systems studied are provided.
Research 358: Research on the Environment, Health, Consumer Behaviour and the Economy: ESRI Environment Research Programme 2018–2020
Authors: Achim Ahrens, Peter Barlow, Brian Broderick, Philip Carthy, Aoife Donnelly, Tom Gillespie, Martina Hennessy, Ronan Lyons, Seán Lyons, Pete Lunn, Ciarán Mac Domhnaill, Finn McLaughlin, Stefano Meneto, Frank Moriarty, Owen Naughton, Anne Nolan, Aonghus O´Domhnaill, Margaret O’Mahony, Deirdre Robertson, Iulia Siedschlag, Shane Timmons, Manuel Tong Koecklin and Weijie Yan. Editor: Anne Nolan, November 2020
Year: 2020
The EPA/ESRI Environment Research Programme brings together a diverse set of research topics with the objective of assessing the ways in which the environment interacts with economic and social processes. This report provides a detailed summary of the 12 topics examined in the second phase of the programme, which was carried out between 2018 and 2020.
Research 357: Ireland’s Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change Network
Authors: Damien Martin and Colin O’Dowd, November 2020
Year: 2020
The Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change network is a valuable established national research and monitoring infrastructure. This fellowship has enabled and sustained scientific work on a national monitoring network. Infrastructure has been continually developed over the course of the fellowship that will facilitate long-term sustainable measurements.
Research 356: Development of Proof-of-concept Portable Sensors for Detection of Heavy Metals and Organic Pesticides and Investigation of Anti-biofouling Materials
Authors: Alan O’Riordan, Michael Nolan, Pierre Lovera, Julio Gutiérrez Moreno, Robert Daly and Benjamin O’Sullivan, November 2020
Year: 2020
One important challenge in the 21st century is the ability to provide a clean and pollutant-free source of water. This project aimed to develop electrochemical and optical-based sensors for detection of organic contaminants (herbicides) and heavy metals. This research has shed light on the potential for the development and optimisation of novel environmental sensors and anti-biofouling strategies.
Research 355: Sensing Our World: How Digital Cultural Practices Can Contribute to Changing Social Norms Around Consumption
Author: Trish Morgan, November 2020
Year: 2020
This research project assesses the potential for novel cultural practices to communicate environmental data and issues to the public in Ireland against the backdrop of local and international environmental pressures. It makes recommendations towards developing solutions to the communication of environmental data to publics and developed a solution in the form of an online database of novel cultural practices.
Research 352: Synthesis of Literature and Preliminary Modelling Relevant to Society-wide Scenarios for Effective Climate Change Mitigation in Ireland
Authors: Barry McMullin and Paul Price, November 2020
Year: 2020
Rapid global warming due to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) caused by human activities is negatively affecting global climate and ecological systems. This research assesses the international literature to inform climate mitigation policy in Ireland and provides a preliminary tool for comparing policy within the Paris Agreement commitments.
Research 354: IE-NETs: Investigating the Potential for Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) in Ireland
Authors: Barry McMullin, Michael B. Jones, Paul R. Price, Alwynne McGeever and Paul Rice, November 2020
Year: 2020
It is now scientifically understood that effective climate action sets a finite limit on total future net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from human activities, and may require dependence on large-scale “negative emissions” or CO₂ removal from the atmosphere. The IE-NETs project provides the first review of the technical potential for CO₂ removal in Ireland and an assessment of the security of long-term carbon storage.
Research 353: Investigation into the Causes, Impacts and Measures to Deal with Algal Blooms in Vartry Reservoir
Authors: Yunhong Shi, Dunzhu Li, Laurence Gill, Bruce Misstear, Ian O’Donohue and Liwen Xiao, November 2020
Year: 2020
Vartry Reservoir is a very important drinking water source in Ireland. This project collected and analysed historical water quality and ecology data from 2016 to 2018 and a series of laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the causes of diatom blooms to identify the pressures. The study also monitored nutrient levels in both the feeding rivers and the reservoir.
Research 351: Identifying “What Matters” for Community Wellbeing with the Irish Public Participation Networks
Author: Simon O’Rafferty, October 2020
Year: 2020
The Public Participation Networks (PPNs) were established through the 2014 Local Government Reform Act in order to “provide a mechanism by which citizens can have a greater say in local government decisions which affect their own communities”. This report presents the findings from an action research project in which a toolkit to develop visions of community wellbeing was co-designed with four PPNs.
Research 350: Towards a Definitive Historical High-resolution Climate Dataset for Ireland – Promoting Climate Research in Ireland
Authors: Jason Flanagan and Paul Nolan, October 2020
Year: 2020
There is strong and constant demand from various sectors for long-term, high-resolution gridded climate datasets. This report describes the available datasets and how, using a variety of available observational datasets, appropriate uncertainty estimates and skill scores have been calculated for the model outputs.
Research 349: Develop a LEAP GHG Ireland Analytical Tool for 2050
Authors: Tomás Mac Uidhir, Fionn Rogan and Brian Ó Gallachóir, October 2020
Year: 2020
This report describes a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions model of Ireland’s energy and agriculture sectors, which were responsible for approximately 61 million tonnes (Mt) of GHG emissions in 2017. The Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) software was used to build the LEAP Ireland 2050 model, which simulates the development of future possible decarbonisation pathways for Ireland.