Strategic Environmental Assessment Report

CLIENT:

Cork City Council

PROJECT NAME: REPORT TITLE:

Cork City Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy

SEA Environmental Report

Future changes in climate and associated impacts on sea level, rainfall patterns/intensity and river flow will influence flooding frequency and extent in the future. Local Authorities in compliance with the Regional Planning Guidelines are attempting to adopt sustainable flood risk strategies in areas likely to be at risk of flooding in the future in the context of climate change and changing weather patterns. Changes to climate could lead to an increase in flooding events in Ireland. The OPW has undertaken a number of Flood Risk Management Studies for different River Basin Districts (RBDs) in Ireland. These studies have identified the areas which are most at risk and future management plans have been advised; these are adopted by the OPW. In some cases,

mitigation measures will involve the construction of physical flood defences. The SEA considered data related to climate from the following sources:

CFRAM Studies 61

• • •

Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications

EPA

4.12.1 Key Considerations relating to the Strategy The key considerations in relation to Climate Change were as follows:

• The Strategy will contribute to the targets, set out in the Climate Action Plan 2023. SEA processes can be utilised to maximise positive climate effects associated with the Strategy.

4.13 Constraints and Opportunities The environmental baseline data was overlaid in raster form and ranked accordingly to produce an overall constraints and opportunities map for the Council's administrative boundary (Figure 4-19). The map was prepared using Geographical Information System (GIS) software that allowed for a weighting system to be applied with differentiation in certain layers as follows:

Vector Layer

Weighting Rationale

SAC SPA NHA

1 1 1

Protected Protected Protected

pNHA

0.5

Not fully protected

Archaeological Heritage

1

Protected

WFD High

0.5

High quality most sensitive to perturbation

Wells and Springs Groundwater High Salmonid Water

1 1 1

Protected

High vulnerability most sensitive to perturbation

Protected

61 Office of Public Works (2021) Catchment-based Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme gov.ie - CFRAM Programme (www.gov.ie)

www.fehilytimoney.ie

P23-206

Page 71 of 103

Powered by