Client:
Cork City Council
Date:
March 2024
Project Title: Cork City LECP 2024-2029 Document Title: Appropriate Assessment Screening Report
Document Issue: draft
4 Identification of European Sites within the Zone of Influence of the Plan This section of the report identifies the potential zone of influence of the proposed Plan, provides information on the Natura 2000 sites within the identified zone of influence and sets out the potential impacts and effects and the likelihood of significant effects. 4.1 Identification of Natura 2000 Sites The first step in identification of Natura 2000 sites is to determine the potential zone of influence of the proposed plan. When the zone of influence of the proposed plan has been determined, Natura 2000 sites within this area can be identified. The potential for these sites to be affected can be evaluated by considering:
Scale and type of the proposed plan. Proximity to the proposed plan.
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Qualifying interests.
Ecological 1 and Landscape 2 connectivity.
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A review of the characteristics of the Plan has identified that, in the absence of significant hydrological links, the characteristics of the Plan will not impose effects beyond the 15 km buffer. Beyond this distance potential effects are diminished due to landscape scale ecological interactions. All European sites within a 15km radius of the Plan area were examined to assess potential connectivity corridors on a landscape scale and assess potential interactions between the Plan and the conservation objectives of each of the sites. Details of European sites that occur within 15 km of Cork City boundary are listed on Table 4.1 and shown in Figures 4.1. Information on QIs, SCIs and site-specific vulnerabilities and sensitivities and background information (such as that within Ireland’s Article 17 and Article 12 Reports to the European Commission, site synopses and Natura 2000 standard data forms) has been considered.
1 Connectivity is defined as a measure of the functional availability of the habitats needed for a particular species to move through a given area. Examples include the flight lines used by bats to travel between roosts and foraging areas or the corridors of appropriate habitat needed by some slow colonising species if they are to spread (CIEEM, 2018) 2 Landscape connectivity is a combined product of structural and functional connectivity, i.e. the effect of physical landscape structure and the actual species use of the landscape (Kettunen et al. 2007)
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