PROPERTY PLANNING and flood plain development will become key issues as the effects of climate change become more pronounced, an expert in the subject told the annual Engineers Ireland Conference in Limerick yesterday.
Dr Conor Murphy said there could be severe implications for the economy and the society as a whole if we did not address the effect that climate change was having on our water supply.
Dr Murphy, who is a lecturer at University College Maynooth and acted as a national reviewer for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said there was little doubt that climate change was having a large impact on our water resources. "A reliable water supply is something we take for granted but all the indications are now that we can no longer assume the availability of water to meet future demand," he said.
"Although Ireland is assumed to be wealthy in terms of water resources, there are substantial regional differences in the availability of water per head of population, with large parts of the east coast already coming under pressure to meet water demand."
Dr Murphy, who is also a hydrologist, said studies at Maynooth college had indicated that by the middle of this century there could be a reduction of 30 per cent in water availability rising to 40 per cent at the end of the century.
This, he said, would have a huge impact on agriculture and society in general, with wetter winters and drier summers being predicted by the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (Icarus) at NUI Maynooth.
"Winter water flows are to be affected significantly. We have traditionally expected a flood in the Boyne every 25 years but, by the middle of this century, it's likely to occur every three years.
"The grave implications for the local population are obvious with increased flooding likely to play havoc with people's lives. Moreover, property planning and flood plain development will become incredibly difficult.
This is a major challenge for the engineering sector," Dr Murphy told the conference, which was attended by more than 300 delegates.
"Other negative developments include a reduction in soil moisture in the summer months, which will have an obvious effect on agriculture. There will be increased erosion of peatlands, which will have a notable effect on that industry."
He said that because the east coast had much higher usage and lower water supplies than the western part of the country, some crops might not be viable in the not to distant future.
"Already in north Co Dublin, farmers are irrigating their potato crops. In a water scarcity situation, such crops would become non-viable and would cease," Dr Murphy said.