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The development focus of the design and implementation of the Soil Information System (SIS) is on the structured holding and maintenance of data arising from all other project activities, in addition to significant other legacy datasets. The SIS further represents the core source from which users and stakeholders will draw upon for their future use of the results of the overall project activities. The design and implementation must therefore not only be ‘fit for purpose’ for the immediate project requirements, be able to facilitate interoperability of the datasets, and must also be consistent with the principles of Directive 2007/2/EC, Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE). The resultant system will reside within a dedicated computer system suitable for the management and administration of the information, and which will enable the future provision of a range of packaged data-oriented services to end-users. Underpinning the SIS system will be a spatially-enabled relational database management system (RDBMS). This will serve to hold and manipulate the variety of data types, scales and sources required, including attribute characteristics tables to hold the descriptive property elements required in the data schema. Datasets elements held in the SIS will be grouped and identified for anticipated end-uses and user communities. Discovery-level Metadata will be collected for these groupings and published to appropriate ‘clearing house’ metadata servers, to ensure the widest possible appreciation of the data holdings as well as the most appropriate usage of the data. Metadata captured in this way will be consistent with the wider international standards emerging for such description and discovery resources.

The overall objective of this project is to conduct a programme of structured research into the distribution of soil types over the whole of Ireland and construct a soil map, at 1:250,000 scale, which will identify and describe the soils according to a harmonised national legend. This map will be in digital form and will form the basis for development of a new soil information system for Ireland. This is in response to national requirements to address the need to provide soil with a level of protection similar to that for water and air and, at international level, the recently adopted official ‘Communication on a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Europe’ (European Commission, 2002, 2006a) which identifies eight threats to soil: erosion, loss of organic matter, contamination, sealing, compaction, loss of biodiversity, salinisation, and landslides and flooding, and is the foundation for the pending Soil Framework Directive – SFD – (European Commission, 2006b). The work being undertaken in this project moves a National soil classification system into a new digital generation. This work is ground-breaking, as no other country has adopted such a complimentary approach of combining novel digital techniques with groundtruthing using traditional soil survey methodologies at a National scale. An estimated 44% of Ireland was surveyed at a scale of 1:126,720 in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s which was used as the basis for construction of a National Soil Map of Ireland in 1980. The National map therefore incorporates 56% of the country, which has only been surveyed at general reconnaissance scale, resulting in an existing National map (General Soil Map of Ireland) with a scale of 1:575,000. The proposed methodology of the new Irish soil map has several phases: (a) reappraisal, rationalisation and data capture for surveyed areas (terra cognita); (b) predictive mapping of unsurveyed areas (terra incognita), based on soil-landscape models and data from surveyed areas (terra cognita), including additional capture of new data for soils not previously encountered, using traditional soil survey techniques; and (c) construction of a soil information system for Ireland (SIS) that will provide a data infrastructure for organising, managing and disseminating soil information at national and international level. The resulting soil map of Ireland at 1:250,000 scale, and associated digital soil information system, will supersede the General Soil Map of Ireland that currently provides a generalised overview of soil distribution across the Country.

Lead Partner: Department of Geography, National University of Ireland Maynooth Project Partners: School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin Marine Institute, Furnace, Newport, Co. Mayo, This report demonstrates that the projected changes in the climate conditions of the Burrishoole catchment, if realised, will have wide ranging implications for all aspects of the catchment system, including water temperature and quality, stream flow hydrology, soil processes, and most notably the well-being of its aquatic environment. While the projected changes in climate and their implications, outlined in this report, are specific to the Burrishoole, they are illustrative of likely changes in similar characteristic catchments along the west coast of Ireland., Funder: Marine Institute

The Less Favoured Area (LFA) scheme is a major element of the EU Rural Development Policy, aimed at supporting farming in areas with natural handicaps or low soil productivity. It has been in place since 1975 and accounts for 14% of total Community funding. In 2003, the European Court of Auditors recommended that the socio-economic criteria on which the current scheme is based be replaced by biophysical criteria. Reviews of the proposals suggest that in Atlantic climates of Northwest Europe, the new criteria do not delineate adequately areas where agricultural productivity is constrained by the biophysical environment and that such areas are instead demarcated by the occurrence of excess soil moisture conditions. In this paper, we review the impact of excess soil moisture conditions on the sustainability of farming systems and their role in constraining strategic and tactical farm management practices. In particular, we review the scientific evidence on the impact of excess soil moisture conditions on herbage growth, herbage utilization, farm operations and environmental sustainability. On the basis of this, we propose an additional biophysical criterion for the new delineation of LFAs, namely the length of time that soil water is in excess of field capacity ('field capacity days'). While there is no clear threshold for field capacity days above which agricultural sustainability is acutely constrained, the evidence reviewed in this paper suggests that the sustainability of intensive livestock farming and tillage systems is particularly challenging in scenarios where the 80 percentile of field capacity days exceeds 220-230days.

The climate of the Burrishoole catchment is projected to change significantly over the present century. Previous research of the catchment identified a scientific gap in knowledge in terms of understanding the implications of present and projected future changes in stream flow, water temperature, pH levels and DO concentrations on fish productivity in the catchment. To address this, a multidisciplinary team of scientists undertook an analysis of both present and likely future climate impacts on the catchment with a view to furthering the understanding of the inter-linkages between climate, climate change, and the freshwater ecosystem. The research findings outlined in the report provide climate change information at the catchment scale to assist catchment stakeholders in integrating climate change considerations into their decision-making processes. The report presents an in-depth assessment of the climate and environmental datasets from the catchment to establish if changes have occurred over the period of record. In order to assess the likely impacts of future changes in climate on the catchment, regional climate projections were developed and subsequently employed to simulate likely responses in stream flow and temperature, DOC and DO for the present century. The projected changes in both the climate and water-quality were then used to provide a basis for assessing impacts on fish growth and survival rates of salmonid and eel species in the catchment. The report provides a useful template for future studies, not just in the Burrishoole catchment but for other ecologically important catchments. The findings from the report are relevant to policy makers at the national scale; catchment managers at the regional scale; and, specifically, to stakeholders in the Burrishoole catchment, in developing adaptive responses to climate change., Funded under the Marine Research Sub-programme of the National Development Plan (2007-’13), as part of the Sea Change Strategy., Funder: Marine Institute

peer-reviewed The relationship between degree days and locational attributes for a selection of sites in Ireland were examined in order to objectively extrapolate values for unmeasured locations. While a number of previous researchers have employed similar methodologies in order to map the geographical variation for selected degree-day thresholds, the authors seek to expand on this existing research through the inclusion of a denser network of stations and for a longer time period (1961 to 1990). Degree days were calculated on a daily basis for three selected threshold temperatures, 0 oC, 5 oC, 10 oC, in order to provide a more accurate assessment of the accumulated monthly energy available at each station. The geographical distribution of degree days was then mapped employing a stepwise linear regression which related locational parameters for each station to the calculated monthly accumulations. While none of the selected thresholds are specific to any plant or insect species they are indicative of the likely spatial variation in degree days due to location and elevation. It is intended that the derived spatial distributions will be useful in providing a basis for assessing likely changes in the thermal regime arising as a consequence of climate change over the course of the present century with the associated potential impact on spatial location of arable cropping in Ireland. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, as part of the Environmental RTDI Programme 2000–2006.

There has been considerable debate in Ireland about the impacts of the Nitrates Directive (Directive 91/676/EEC) on the pig industry in relation to the 170 kg/ha organic N limit mandated in the Directive and the possible inclusion of an upper limit for phosphorus. Such requirements, especially a phosphorus limit, will lead to more restrictive rules on slurry spreading. The argument centres around whether there is sufficient suitable arable land to meet the needs of the pig industry for spreading pig slurry. At a national level, a key difficulty in Ireland is a lack of accurate data on the real transport distances involved in getting pig slurry from producer locations to potential arable land for spreading. A full road-based network analysis has been performed in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software environment on a pilot area of Ireland examining the location of pig producing facilities and potential arable land. The allocation procedure as run in its current form has proved to be powerful analysis tool in providing a mechanism to generate very close approximations to the real transport distances that pig facilities need to transport pig slurry. Real transport distances then have to be viewed in relation to the range of costs involved in transport. Our calculations indicate that manure transport from livestock farms to arable farms becomes energetically questionable beyond distances of 50-75 km. From a financial point of view manure could be transported over much longer distances if the arable farmer only had to pay for the costs of transport and spreading. Transporting manure is not a self-evident solution under all circumstances.

peer-reviewed This project is jointly funded by Teagasc and EPA STRIVE funding. Harmonised soil data across Europe with a 1:250 000 geo-referenced soil database will allow for exchange of data across member states and the provide the information needed for reporting on issues re-lating to soil quality under a future Soil Framework Directive. The current status of soils data available in Eu-rope is inconsistent at best. The Irish Soil Information System (ISIS) project is currently developing a national soil map of 1:250,000 and an associated digital soil information system, providing both spatial and quantita-tive information on soil types and properties across Ireland. Both the map and the information system will be freely available to the public through a designated website. This project is jointly funded by Teagasc and EPA STRIVE funding.

The European CORDEX (EURO-CORDEX) initiative is a large voluntary effort that seeks to advance regional climate and Earth system science in Europe. As part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) - Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), it shares the broader goals of providing a model evaluation and climate projection framework and improving communication with both the General Circulation Model (GCM) and climate data user communities. EURO-CORDEX oversees the design and coordination of ongoing ensembles of regional climate projections of unprecedented size and resolution (0.11° EUR-11 and 0.44° EUR-44 domains). Additionally, the inclusion of empirical-statistical downscaling allows investigation of much larger multi-model ensembles. These complementary approaches provide a foundation for scientific studies within the climate research community and others. The value of the EURO-CORDEX ensemble is shown via numerous peer-reviewed studies and its use in the development of climate services. Evaluations of the EUR-44 and EUR-11 ensembles also show the benefits of higher resolution. However, significant challenges remain. To further advance scientific understanding, two flagship pilot studies (FPS) were initiated. The first investigates local-regional phenomena at convection-permitting scales over central Europe and the Mediterranean in collaboration with the Med-CORDEX community. The second investigates the impacts of land cover changes on European climate across spatial and temporal scales. Over the coming years, the EURO-CORDEX community looks forward to closer collaboration with other communities, new advances, supporting international initiatives such as the IPCC reports, and continuing to provide the basis for research on regional climate impacts and adaptation in Europe., S.S. acknowledges the support of NOTUR/NORSTORE projects NN9280K/NS9001K and the Research Council of Norway and its basic institute support of the strategic project on Climate Services. E.K. acknowledges the support of the Greek Research & Technology Network (GRNET) for provision of technical support and facilities (HPC-ARIS). L.S. and I.G. acknowledge the support of Croatian Science Foundation project CARE (2831) and Ministry of Environment and Energy project TF/HR/P3-M1-O1-0101 (www.prilagodba-klimi.hr). J. F. acknowledges support from the Spanish R+D Programme through grant INSIGNIA (CGL2016-79210-R), co-funded by ERDF/FEDER, and the Altamira Supercomputer at Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA-CSIC), member of the Spanish Supercomputing Network. P.T. acknowledges support from the Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) within the CORDEX.be (BR/143/A2) project, and the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) and the Flemish Government – department EWI.M.A.G. acknowledges support from the Spanish R+D Programme through grants CGL2013-47261-R and CGL2017-89583-R, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. RF acknowledges support provided by ICHEC (Irish Centre for High End Computing) and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. K.G. and S.K. gratefully acknowledge the computing time granted through JARA-HPC on the supercomputers JUROPA and JURECA at Forschungszentrum Jülich. M.B. and T.H. acknowledge support by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports from the Large Infrastructures for Research, Experimental Development and Innovations project “IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center – LM2015070” and the INTER-EXCELLENCE program LTT17007, and support by Charles University from the PROGRES Q16 program. We acknowledge the approval and support of the two Flagship Pilot Studies (the FPS on Convective phenomena at high resolution over Europe and the Mediterranean and the FPS on Land Use and Climate Across Scales) by WRCP CORDEX. We thank Merja Tölle for providing simulation CCLM5-0-9-JLU as contribution to the CORDEX-FPS “Convective phenomena at high resolution over Europe and the Mediterranean”. D. M., M.P., and H.T. gratefully acknowledge the support received via the projects HighEnd:Extremes, SPIRIT, and reclip:convex, funded by the Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP) of the Klima- und Energiefonds (nos. B368608, B960272, and B769999, respectively), as well as the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) for compute time on JURECA through the grant JJSC39 and the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) through the grants 70992 and 71193.

Harmonised soil data across Europe with a 1:250 000 geo-referenced soil database will allow for exchange of data across member states and the provide the information needed by the European Commission and European Environment Agency for reporting on issues relating to soil quality under a fu-ture Soil Framework Directive. Within this context, the Environmental Protection Agency of the Republic of Ireland commissioned a project run by Teagasc to produce a 1:250 000 soil map of the Republic of Ire-land. Delivery of this map and associated database is a collaborative effort between Teagasc, the National Soil Resources Institute at Cranfield in the UK and University College Dublin. Environmental Protection Agency