Existing habitat condition assessments in Ireland lack a standardised, quantitative methodology and are often beyond the time constraints of monitoring staff. Therefore, there is a need to develop a framework that can rapidly assess habitats and provide a benchmark against which change can be measured. We reviewed existing national and international habitat assessments to develop a new rapid habitat assessment framework specific to Ireland. This framework uses 22 variables encompassing: (i) a pre-survey that considers the site within the context of the landscape; (ii) a structured field survey to measure physical and biological variables; and (iii) a site overview that considers site management variables to generate a quantitative site score. We tested our framework using Irish machair as a case study due to it being particularly vulnerable to rapid changes from both anthropogenic and climatic sources. Our framework scores matched 70% of the current three-tiered ‘traffic light’ designations established in the Habitats Directive and were within expected ranges. Our approach establishes a quantitative score that creates a benchmark against which we can measure future change and the identification of specific drivers of habitat change. The framework is a practical response to the lack of a unified approach to assessing and reporting habitat condition and will help Ireland meet monitoring requirements and determine the effect(s) of management/conservation efforts.
{"title":"A Rapid Assessment Framework for Irish Habitats: A Case Study of Machair Habitat Quality","authors":"T. Gorman, G. Kindermann, T. Morley","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1372","url":null,"abstract":"Existing habitat condition assessments in Ireland lack a standardised, quantitative methodology and are often beyond the time constraints of monitoring staff. Therefore, there is a need to develop a framework that can rapidly assess habitats and provide a benchmark against which change can be measured. We reviewed existing national and international habitat assessments to develop a new rapid habitat assessment framework specific to Ireland. This framework uses 22 variables encompassing: (i) a pre-survey that considers the site within the context of the landscape; (ii) a structured field survey to measure physical and biological variables; and (iii) a site overview that considers site management variables to generate a quantitative site score. We tested our framework using Irish machair as a case study due to it being particularly vulnerable to rapid changes from both anthropogenic and climatic sources. Our framework scores matched 70% of the current three-tiered ‘traffic light’ designations established in the Habitats Directive and were within expected ranges. Our approach establishes a quantitative score that creates a benchmark against which we can measure future change and the identification of specific drivers of habitat change. The framework is a practical response to the lack of a unified approach to assessing and reporting habitat condition and will help Ireland meet monitoring requirements and determine the effect(s) of management/conservation efforts.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47641752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paraglacial processes represent the dominant mechanism of geomorphic change in deglaciating landscapes worldwide and are now being increasingly recognised as controls on deglacial and postglacial landscape dynamics. This reflects the influence of glacigenic lithospheric loading/unloading cycles and patterns of glacigenic erosion and deposition. Ireland is an important location for studying the impacts of paraglacial processes in the landscape, as it was strongly imprinted by the erosional and depositional imprints of late Pleistocene glaciations and was affected by rapid shifts in North Atlantic climate. Using examples from mountains, rivers and coasts from across Ireland, this study examines some of the varied landscape responses to paraglacial relaxation in these different settings. The purpose behind this study is to show how the styles of paraglacial response may vary over time and space, even within a single regional landscape, and this can help assess the sensitivity of different environments affected by paraglacial relaxation. This study proposes an evolutionary model that describes the paraglacial sediment cascade that has shaped the Irish landscape during the lateglacial and Holocene. Consideration of paraglacial processes can yield a better understanding of the postglacial evolution of mountain, river and coastal landscapes in Ireland.
{"title":"Paraglacial evolution of the Irish landscape","authors":"J. Knight, S. Harrison","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1370","url":null,"abstract":"Paraglacial processes represent the dominant mechanism of geomorphic change in deglaciating landscapes worldwide and are now being increasingly recognised as controls on deglacial and postglacial landscape dynamics. This reflects the influence of glacigenic lithospheric loading/unloading cycles and patterns of glacigenic erosion and deposition. Ireland is an important location for studying the impacts of paraglacial processes in the landscape, as it was strongly imprinted by the erosional and depositional imprints of late Pleistocene glaciations and was affected by rapid shifts in North Atlantic climate. Using examples from mountains, rivers and coasts from across Ireland, this study examines some of the varied landscape responses to paraglacial relaxation in these different settings. The purpose behind this study is to show how the styles of paraglacial response may vary over time and space, even within a single regional landscape, and this can help assess the sensitivity of different environments affected by paraglacial relaxation. This study proposes an evolutionary model that describes the paraglacial sediment cascade that has shaped the Irish landscape during the lateglacial and Holocene. Consideration of paraglacial processes can yield a better understanding of the postglacial evolution of mountain, river and coastal landscapes in Ireland.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44716554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The EU is committed to quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry, including wetlands. Wetlands and peatlands will play a central role in achieving temperature goals agreed in the Paris Agreement. Throughout Europe and particularly in Ireland, peatlands have been under severe strain for decades. Irish peatlands cover about 20.6% of the land and up to 85% are degraded. Medium resolution satellite data were analysed using a combination of object-based image assessment and peatland maps to produce land use maps for the 2005 to 2006 period. Four peatland land use types were detected: grassland, forestry, industrial peat production, and residual peat. Persistent cloud was an issue along the western seaboard and peatlands in these areas were excluded from the analysis. Despite this issue, the results show that 66% of peatlands have undergone land use change: 35% to grassland; 27% to forestry; and 4% to industrial. The overall map accuracy was 77%. The results could be used to aid the development of baseline data on peatland land use in Ireland for the 2005-2009 base period as required by the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The methodology may be used to quantify land use and land use change on peatlands across the EU.
{"title":"Mapping land use on Irish peatlands using medium resolution satellite imagery","authors":"J. Connolly","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1371","url":null,"abstract":"The EU is committed to quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry, including wetlands. Wetlands and peatlands will play a central role in achieving temperature goals agreed in the Paris Agreement. Throughout Europe and particularly in Ireland, peatlands have been under severe strain for decades. Irish peatlands cover about 20.6% of the land and up to 85% are degraded. Medium resolution satellite data were analysed using a combination of object-based image assessment and peatland maps to produce land use maps for the 2005 to 2006 period. Four peatland land use types were detected: grassland, forestry, industrial peat production, and residual peat. Persistent cloud was an issue along the western seaboard and peatlands in these areas were excluded from the analysis. Despite this issue, the results show that 66% of peatlands have undergone land use change: 35% to grassland; 27% to forestry; and 4% to industrial. The overall map accuracy was 77%. The results could be used to aid the development of baseline data on peatland land use in Ireland for the 2005-2009 base period as required by the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The methodology may be used to quantify land use and land use change on peatlands across the EU.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49476776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There are multifaceted challenges in conducting geomorphology research in third level institutions in Ireland in an academic era rife with pressures to publish and expectations to conduct relevant research with high societal impact. This special issue includes a series of innovative papers that address that challenge, focused specifically on the vulnerability of Irish landscape systems to climate change and human activity. A series of recommendations are presented that promote the visibility of geomorphology research and teaching and identify opportunities where geomorphologists can contribute to national plans on broad landscape planning and building climate resilience. These include: (i) using climate change as a vehicle to foster new cross disciplinary research programmes and to bridge the physical-human divide in the discipline of geography; (ii) monetising ecosystems goods and services as a means to obtain proportional capital investment to conserve and protect our neglected and underappreciated geomorphic features and landscapes; and (iii) advocating for appropriately resourced research funding to support essential field-based research in the wider geomorphological field across universities.
{"title":"The future geomorphic landscape in Ireland","authors":"E. Farrell, M. Bourke","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1368","url":null,"abstract":"There are multifaceted challenges in conducting geomorphology research in third level institutions in Ireland in an academic era rife with pressures to publish and expectations to conduct relevant research with high societal impact. This special issue includes a series of innovative papers that address that challenge, focused specifically on the vulnerability of Irish landscape systems to climate change and human activity. A series of recommendations are presented that promote the visibility of geomorphology research and teaching and identify opportunities where geomorphologists can contribute to national plans on broad landscape planning and building climate resilience. These include: (i) using climate change as a vehicle to foster new cross disciplinary research programmes and to bridge the physical-human divide in the discipline of geography; (ii) monetising ecosystems goods and services as a means to obtain proportional capital investment to conserve and protect our neglected and underappreciated geomorphic features and landscapes; and (iii) advocating for appropriately resourced research funding to support essential field-based research in the wider geomorphological field across universities.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44902059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abigail Cronin, R. Devoy, Darius Bartlett, S. Nuyts, B. O'Dwyer
A sequence of high elevation sands containing both broken and whole marine shells, as well as many mega-sized, raft-shaped boulders (1-3m across) has been discovered at Tralispean Bay, West Cork, Ireland. Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), ground surveying and differential GPS (dGPS) show that the sediments cover an area of c.0.75ha, reaching a maximum height of c.+18.5m ODM, with interconnected pockets of sand varying in thickness of up to 1m. Coring, lithostratigraphic study, granulometry, organics loss-on-ignition and carbonate content analyses, together with examination of micro- and macrofossils, indicate that the shelly sands were deposited rapidly, under high energy conditions. Informal interviews with local residents, as well as the extent of the sands, suggest that the deposit is not the result of human actions. Elevations reached by the sediments, the presence of mega-boulders, and other indicators make it unlikely that these sediments arose from storm activity. It is possible that they have been deposited as the result of a tsunami. The radiocarbon (AMS) date obtained places the age of such an event at 1465 AD (Cal BP 485). At present, no clear historical record has been identified of any tsunami impacts affecting the south coast of Ireland other than the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.
{"title":"Investigation of an Elevated Sands Unit at Tralispean Bay, South-West Ireland – Potential High Energy Marine Event","authors":"Abigail Cronin, R. Devoy, Darius Bartlett, S. Nuyts, B. O'Dwyer","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1373","url":null,"abstract":"A sequence of high elevation sands containing both broken and whole marine shells, as well as many mega-sized, raft-shaped boulders (1-3m across) has been discovered at Tralispean Bay, West Cork, Ireland. Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), ground surveying and differential GPS (dGPS) show that the sediments cover an area of c.0.75ha, reaching a maximum height of c.+18.5m ODM, with interconnected pockets of sand varying in thickness of up to 1m. Coring, lithostratigraphic study, granulometry, organics loss-on-ignition and carbonate content analyses, together with examination of micro- and macrofossils, indicate that the shelly sands were deposited rapidly, under high energy conditions. Informal interviews with local residents, as well as the extent of the sands, suggest that the deposit is not the result of human actions. Elevations reached by the sediments, the presence of mega-boulders, and other indicators make it unlikely that these sediments arose from storm activity. It is possible that they have been deposited as the result of a tsunami. The radiocarbon (AMS) date obtained places the age of such an event at 1465 AD (Cal BP 485). At present, no clear historical record has been identified of any tsunami impacts affecting the south coast of Ireland other than the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41459405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Winter storms have significant morphological impacts in coastal areas, often leading to extensive infrastructure damage and socio-economic disruption. While storm-dominated coastal environments, such as the northwest coast of Ireland, are generally attuned to highly energetic wave conditions, morphological impacts can be intensified by changes in the frequency and sequencing of storm events, particularly during storm-groups or exceptional winter seasons. Aiming to assess the variability in frequency and sequencing of wintertime wave conditions and storms in the northwest of Ireland, we combine observational records (M4 buoy) with data from two independent wave reanalyses (ERA-Interim and WAVEWATCH III) and perform a statistical analysis of wave conditions over the past six decades. Both reanalyses represent observed wave heights with very good skill. Excellent agreement between modelled data and observations was identified up to the 99th percentile, despite a slight underestimation/overestimation by ERA-Interim/WAVEWATCH III for waves above the 90% exceedance level. The winter of 2014/15 was the most energetic on record (67 years), but not the stormiest. The results show that highly energetic and stormy winters occur in clusters during positive phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation. Significant positive temporal trends for winter wave height, number of storms per winter and average winter storm wave height, suggest that winters are becoming more energetic and stormier, with potential implications for the erosion and recovery of coastal systems in the northwest of Ireland.
{"title":"Temporal variability in winter wave conditions and storminess in the northwest of Ireland","authors":"C. Loureiro, A. Cooper","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1369","url":null,"abstract":"Winter storms have significant morphological impacts in coastal areas, often leading to extensive infrastructure damage and socio-economic disruption. While storm-dominated coastal environments, such as the northwest coast of Ireland, are generally attuned to highly energetic wave conditions, morphological impacts can be intensified by changes in the frequency and sequencing of storm events, particularly during storm-groups or exceptional winter seasons. Aiming to assess the variability in frequency and sequencing of wintertime wave conditions and storms in the northwest of Ireland, we combine observational records (M4 buoy) with data from two independent wave reanalyses (ERA-Interim and WAVEWATCH III) and perform a statistical analysis of wave conditions over the past six decades. Both reanalyses represent observed wave heights with very good skill. Excellent agreement between modelled data and observations was identified up to the 99th percentile, despite a slight underestimation/overestimation by ERA-Interim/WAVEWATCH III for waves above the 90% exceedance level. The winter of 2014/15 was the most energetic on record (67 years), but not the stormiest. The results show that highly energetic and stormy winters occur in clusters during positive phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation. Significant positive temporal trends for winter wave height, number of storms per winter and average winter storm wave height, suggest that winters are becoming more energetic and stormier, with potential implications for the erosion and recovery of coastal systems in the northwest of Ireland.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43475150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sara Varandas Martins, H. Burningham, Carla Pinto-Cruz
The hydrological regime of freshwater systems plays a crucial role in shaping the dynamics of the different biological communities that inhabit them. Climate change is expected to cause major alterations in the hydrological regime of dune slacks by producing shifts in temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration. Across seasons, we explore the controls on common water fleas (Cladocera) and aquatic plant communities relative to water level regime, water chemistry, weather and geomorphological setting, in a slack of the Sheskinmore dune system, Co. Donegal, northwest Ireland. Cladoceran abundance and diversity peak in summer, but also vary inter-annually, and drivers for this and hydrological variability are discussed. Vegetation is likewise affected by hydrology in a spatial sense, where distribution follows wet/dry patches of water. Water chemistry is more variable within the same season than across different years, particularly related to the drying out of the slack. Rainfall through 2016-2017 was lower than average and evapotranspiration showed higher values than average for the same time period. The influence on the slack of this decreased precipitation extended across successive seasons. The water table is the most important driver of slack ecology, with incidence on biological communities expressed by the increased variability inter-annually, as opposed to seasonal variation.
{"title":"Climate variability impacts on coastal dune slack ecohydrology","authors":"Sara Varandas Martins, H. Burningham, Carla Pinto-Cruz","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1374","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I2.1374","url":null,"abstract":"The hydrological regime of freshwater systems plays a crucial role in shaping the dynamics of the different biological communities that inhabit them. Climate change is expected to cause major alterations in the hydrological regime of dune slacks by producing shifts in temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration. Across seasons, we explore the controls on common water fleas (Cladocera) and aquatic plant communities relative to water level regime, water chemistry, weather and geomorphological setting, in a slack of the Sheskinmore dune system, Co. Donegal, northwest Ireland. Cladoceran abundance and diversity peak in summer, but also vary inter-annually, and drivers for this and hydrological variability are discussed. Vegetation is likewise affected by hydrology in a spatial sense, where distribution follows wet/dry patches of water. Water chemistry is more variable within the same season than across different years, particularly related to the drying out of the slack. Rainfall through 2016-2017 was lower than average and evapotranspiration showed higher values than average for the same time period. The influence on the slack of this decreased precipitation extended across successive seasons. The water table is the most important driver of slack ecology, with incidence on biological communities expressed by the increased variability inter-annually, as opposed to seasonal variation.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45607688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Arbor Day, historically devoted to tree planting, connected people with trees and left a legacy for future generations. Reports in local and national newspapers describe Arbor Days in 20th century Ireland. They were organised by The Irish Forestry Society, 1904-1923; the Department of Lands 1935-1939 and Trees for Ireland 1950- 1984, two voluntary groups and a state sponsor, in co-operation with local authorities. While the aim was to promote afforestation, in time it fostered an interest in trees in rural and, more particularly, in urban communities, what is now known as urban forestry. Arbor Days followed a similar format with speeches by local politicians and clergy referencing the social, sometimes nationalistic role of trees, followed by tree planting by them and young people. The inculcation of a life-long interest in trees in young people was obvious in each period. Planting in school or college grounds, though evident throughout the periods under consideration, was most pronounced from 1935-1939. In the period 1952-1984, the sites selected in Dublin were located in developing suburbs or large public housing schemes. Arbor Day was adopted by local community groups who also organised tree planting. Arbor Day in Ireland mirrored Arbor Day in the US and Australia. There is little evidence to suggest that Arbor Day furthered afforestation. However, it was a valuable environmental and educational initiative in periods of political and economic change in 20th century Ireland. Arbor Day foreshadowed environmental initiatives current in 21st century Ireland and worldwide.
{"title":"‘To further planting of trees’: Arbor Day in 20th century Ireland","authors":"M. Forrest","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I1.1345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I1.1345","url":null,"abstract":"Arbor Day, historically devoted to tree planting, connected people with trees and left a legacy for future generations. Reports in local and national newspapers describe Arbor Days in 20th century Ireland. They were organised by The Irish Forestry Society, 1904-1923; the Department of Lands 1935-1939 and Trees for Ireland 1950- 1984, two voluntary groups and a state sponsor, in co-operation with local authorities. While the aim was to promote afforestation, in time it fostered an interest in trees in rural and, more particularly, in urban communities, what is now known as urban forestry. Arbor Days followed a similar format with speeches by local politicians and clergy referencing the social, sometimes nationalistic role of trees, followed by tree planting by them and young people. The inculcation of a life-long interest in trees in young people was obvious in each period. Planting in school or college grounds, though evident throughout the periods under consideration, was most pronounced from 1935-1939. In the period 1952-1984, the sites selected in Dublin were located in developing suburbs or large public housing schemes. Arbor Day was adopted by local community groups who also organised tree planting. Arbor Day in Ireland mirrored Arbor Day in the US and Australia. There is little evidence to suggest that Arbor Day furthered afforestation. However, it was a valuable environmental and educational initiative in periods of political and economic change in 20th century Ireland. Arbor Day foreshadowed environmental initiatives current in 21st century Ireland and worldwide.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41854795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Founded in 1774, the Dublin Paving Board was responsible for maintaining and improving the quality of the city’s street network. By 1783, the organisation had amounted substantial debts resulting in significant political fallout concerning its governance. An interim committee, tasked with alleviating the situation, commissioned a statistical survey to better understand the state of Dublin’s transport network, which at the time consisted of nearly four hundred streets, lanes and alleys. The survey was important for several reasons. In immediate terms, it was central to operational and financial planning of the Paving Board whose work affected the entire populace of Dublin. By categorising and assessing every street in Dublin, the survey empowered decision makers within the Board to determine the future of the organisation and how the city’s streets should be managed. The survey was also of historical significance as it documented an important element of urban life in eighteenth-century Dublin free of bias or opinion that frequently shadowed the often-controversial work of the Paving Board in period publications.
{"title":"The 1783 Statistical Survey of Dublin’s Street Network","authors":"Finnian O'Cionnaith","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I1.1353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I1.1353","url":null,"abstract":"Founded in 1774, the Dublin Paving Board was responsible for maintaining and improving the quality of the city’s street network. By 1783, the organisation had amounted substantial debts resulting in significant political fallout concerning its governance. An interim committee, tasked with alleviating the situation, commissioned a statistical survey to better understand the state of Dublin’s transport network, which at the time consisted of nearly four hundred streets, lanes and alleys. The survey was important for several reasons. In immediate terms, it was central to operational and financial planning of the Paving Board whose work affected the entire populace of Dublin. By categorising and assessing every street in Dublin, the survey empowered decision makers within the Board to determine the future of the organisation and how the city’s streets should be managed. The survey was also of historical significance as it documented an important element of urban life in eighteenth-century Dublin free of bias or opinion that frequently shadowed the often-controversial work of the Paving Board in period publications.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43938940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Catholic parish is arguably the most fundamental unit of territory in Ireland. Over 1,300 of these units cover the entire land surface of the island. Their history and development tells the story of the accretion of institutional power by the Roman Catholic Church. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Catholic parish became a means of organisation for an institutional church struggling with prohibition only later to become a key unit of social and political activity. Parishes are a vitally important way in which local identity in Ireland is connected with place. However, despite widespread use, the cartographical boundaries of Catholic parishes are not widely known. The boundaries have not been widely used on maps. This paper outlines the results of a project that attempted the initial digitisation of Catholic parish boundaries to make them more available. In the first part of the paper, we outline the historical and geographical significance of the Catholic parish in Ireland. It is argued that the Catholic parish is both a social and a cartographic representation. The parish materialises a sense of place for Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In the second part of the paper, we report on the work of a project to digitally represent the boundaries of the Catholic parish and diocesan boundaries. It involved six years of work across two universities and a number of other state and non-state actors. More than a technical task, the cartographical representation of digital parish boundaries uncovered a series of local contestations. These contestations point to what are conceptualised here as a tidal geography: an understanding of the meaning of place that recedes and advances. The paper concludes with some challenges to the process of digitisation and a brief discussion of tidal geographies.
{"title":"Drawing lines on pages: remaking the Catholic parish maps of Ireland as a tidal public geography","authors":"E. O'Mahony, Mike Murphy","doi":"10.2014/IGJ.V51I1.1326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2014/IGJ.V51I1.1326","url":null,"abstract":"The Catholic parish is arguably the most fundamental unit of territory in Ireland. Over 1,300 of these units cover the entire land surface of the island. Their history and development tells the story of the accretion of institutional power by the Roman Catholic Church. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Catholic parish became a means of organisation for an institutional church struggling with prohibition only later to become a key unit of social and political activity. Parishes are a vitally important way in which local identity in Ireland is connected with place. However, despite widespread use, the cartographical boundaries of Catholic parishes are not widely known. The boundaries have not been widely used on maps. This paper outlines the results of a project that attempted the initial digitisation of Catholic parish boundaries to make them more available. \u0000In the first part of the paper, we outline the historical and geographical significance of the Catholic parish in Ireland. It is argued that the Catholic parish is both a social and a cartographic representation. The parish materialises a sense of place for Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In the second part of the paper, we report on the work of a project to digitally represent the boundaries of the Catholic parish and diocesan boundaries. It involved six years of work across two universities and a number of other state and non-state actors. More than a technical task, the cartographical representation of digital parish boundaries uncovered a series of local contestations. These contestations point to what are conceptualised here as a tidal geography: an understanding of the meaning of place that recedes and advances. The paper concludes with some challenges to the process of digitisation and a brief discussion of tidal geographies.","PeriodicalId":35618,"journal":{"name":"Irish Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45114856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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