Ireland's Rivers
Ireland's Rivers and the Sustainable Development Goals
In Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), local authorities, Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Marine Institute monitor water quality under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) programme. The main objective of the WFD is to achieve and maintain at least 'Good' status for all water bodies, to restore 'High' status in some ecologically important areas, and to maintain all current High Status water bodies.
The status of Ireland's rivers is used as a proxy indicator to monitor Ireland's progress in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN countries have adopted a set of 17 goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda . Each goal has specific targets to help achieve the goals set out in the agenda by 2030. Indicators are used to monitor Ireland's progress in relation to achieving targets set out by the 17 United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Goal 6 aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Interactive maps, images and text have been combined in this Story Map to explore Ireland's progress towards Goal 6 targets.
Target 6.3 By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.
The video below outlines the importance of good ecological status for Ireland's rivers and lakes.
The EPA carries out river water quality monitoring each year, and a full survey cycle is completed every three years.
Status of Ireland's rivers 2015
This map represents proportion of rivers achieving at least good ambient quality, 2015 at river sub-basin level.
This map layer has been developed as a proxy to represent SDG 6.3.2 Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality. Source: EPA. Additional information on Lake water body status can be accessed here .
In 2015, 57% of monitored rivers assessed achieved 'Good' or 'High' status (dark purple).
Click on an area of interest to access more detail.
Where are the high status rivers?
This map represents river sub-basins with 'High' status, 2015 (dark purple). Source: EPA.
Clusters of 'High' status River Sub-basins are recorded in Cork, Kerry in the South West, Mayo in the West and Donegal in the Border region.
The largest number of high-quality sites are in the less densely populated and less intensively farmed regions in the west and south west. Decline of high-quality sites is a continuing trend.
Zoom to an area of interest or click on a feature to access details.
Significant Pressures
Some significant pressures on Ireland's river systems include impacts from nutrients leaking from agriculture and urban areas. The graph below illustrates the significant pressures and source of pressures on At Risk water bodies.
Source: EPA, 2019
An Integrated Approach
The River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021 sets out a new approach called “integrated catchment management” to be used to support the development and implementation of the plan. It aims to use the catchment to bring together public bodies, communities and businesses to protect, improve and sustainably manage the water environment.
A catchment is an area where water is collected by the natural landscape and flows from source through river, lakes and groundwater to the sea.
Local authorities are central to implementing the River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021. The Local Authority Waters Programme supports collaborations between different local authorities within a catchment. The programme is also key to public consultation and engagement.
Target 6.b Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management.
The map below displays WFD Catchment boundaries (purple) and Local Authority boundaries.
Local Authorities and Catchment boundaries
The catchments.ie website has been developed to support community engagement and aims to share science and stories about Ireland’s water catchments, and people’s connections to their water.
Maps Past, Present and Future
Shared environmental and socio-economic geospatial data help to support evidence based decision making in relation to river basin management.
Summary
The EPA monitor and report on the status of Ireland's rivers under the Water Framework Directive. The status of Ireland's rivers is also used as a proxy indicator to monitor progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The latest EPA report (Water Quality in 2017) indicates that 56% of our rivers are at high or good biological quality with the remaining 44% being at moderate or worse quality. The reduction in the number of river water bodies at bad quality is continuing. However, high-quality sites are in decline and there has been a net overall decline of 3 per cent in the water quality in Irish rivers between 2015 and 2017.
The River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021 outlines an integrated catchment management approach to protect and improve the water environment. Geospatial data provide essential information to support evidence based decision making in relation to river basin management.
Sources
Water Quality in 2017 , Environmental Protection Agency
River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021 , Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government
