Coastal Communities Adapting Together (CCAT) has developed a comprehensive study about the evolution of legislation, policies and plans that are essential to promoting the debate about coastal climate adaptation in the Republic of Ireland relating to rising sea levels and the increase in the frequency and intensity of storms due to climate change1.
This study will support Fingal County Council (a partner of CCAT project) to better plan for the future of the Portrane coastal area, which is undergoing dramatic transformations due to the consequences of climate change, especially those related to coastal erosion and coastal flooding2.
The information gathered in this study was converted into an ArcGIS StoryMaps3 with the purpose of offering citizens and decision-makers an interactive and engaging way to learn and find all the relevant and up-to-date documents related to climate adaptation in the Irish coastal zone in one place. The main objectives of each document were summarised alongside an embedded PDF of the corresponding document obtained from the appropriate website.
The documents collected and examined was organised into three governance categories: national, regional, and local; and into four themes: Coastal Management, Planning and Development, Climate Change, and Biodiversity.
The diagram below presents the documents evaluated by this study.
An interactive timeline was created to visualise the legislation, policies and plans implementation over time, across the three governance levels, and around the four themes. By clicking on the title of a document displayed in the timeline, the user will find more information about the document and a link to the government website where the document is hosted.
The documents examined were distributed in three StoryMaps:
1. The first StoryMap introduces the research and explains the StoryMap content and the navigation across the other StoryMaps. It also explains how to interact with the timeline.
2. The second StoryMap presents the legislation, policies and plans at the national level. These include national policies related to coastal zone management, planning and development, and climate change adaptation (including biodiversity frameworks).
3. The third StoryMap presents the legislation, policies and plans related to sustainable development, coastal management, and climate adaptation at the regional level and local level of the studies area, i.e., Greater Dublin Area and Eastern and Midland Region and Fingal County.
Other coastal communities in Ireland may benefit from the information gathered in this research, especially on the collection of national documentation.
Please, visit CCAT Coastal-Climate Adaptation StoryMaps to discover more here
Storymaps Authors:
The ArcGIS Storymaps and the timeline were developed with the assistance of Xinrui Gong (Yuanpei College, Peking University), during her internship with the CCAT project in August and September 2021.
The research for the study was conducted by Dr. Fernanda Terra Stori (MaREI, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork).
ArcGIS Storymaps and TimeGraphics technical support was provided by Dr. Chiara Cocco (University College Dublin).
Supervision: Dr. Brenda McNally (University College Dublin) and Cathal O’Mahony (MaREI, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork).
To learn more see:
1 – #AdaptationEmergency – www.ccatproject.eu/adaptationemergency/
2 – Retreat or no retreat?- www.ccatproject.eu/retreat-or-not-retreat-that-is-the-question/
3 – What are ArcGIS StoryMaps? https://arcg.is/15L5aH
ArcGIS StoryMaps Website: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/
