Future building projects will have to take into account the findings of new research on how climate change will affect developments.
Met Éireann and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage have produced a series of maps and reports modelling how extremes of climate will impact building standards.
Met Éireann has also produced new reports that utilise the driving rain index (an important climatological consideration when designing buildings) and maps extremes in temperature, soil temperature, snow loadings and rainfall frequencies.
It has updated its modelling to account for shorter “return” periods – the passage of time between a severe weather event and the likelihood of it reoccurring.
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It has produced climate data for use in building design and for dealing with the issue of “overheating” – a phenomenon where structures become too hot for human habitation.
It is intended the data will be used to future-proof not only residential developments against extremes of climate but bridges, roadways and railways.
One calculation is that the hottest 5 per cent of days in Ireland will be on average 1-1.6 degrees warmer in the best case scenario and 1.4-2.2 degrees warmer in the worst case scenario in 2041-2060.
In the current context of climate warming it is expected that extreme high temperatures will occur more frequently and extreme low temperatures less frequently.
Met Éireann head of climate service division Keith Lampkin said Irish buildings have been built for centuries with a view to keeping the heat in but future buildings will have to be built to also withstand record temperatures.
Buildings are being designed with the existing ambient (average) temperature in mind but this is likely to increase significantly in the coming decades. “If you build anything in this country whether it be a bridge or a house or a road, you follow building standards,” he said.
Record temperatures
“We all know from various reports that the temperatures in Ireland will increase significantly into the future.
“What we are very conscious to do is to create new climate products – specialised products – to help the department update those standards,” he explained.
“We need to build things that will last 50-100 years that will be resilient to these climate changes.”
The new guidelines are part of the Government’s climate action plan and will inform any updates in relation to building standards.
Those standards will have to take into account the possibility, on a regular basis, of temperatures above the 33 degrees recorded in Ireland last July.
Met Éireann has also presented its latest data in relation to driving rain. Wind-driven rain against a wall may be partially absorbed or penetrate through cracks in the wall, therefore increasing the risk of damage to the building fabric. It is particularly prevalent in homes built in the west of Ireland.
“The current building standards use driving rain in their calculations of what blocks to use and in what construction methods to use in different parts of the country, but that data is 20 years old give or take,” he said.
