Climate expert challenges dockland developments

ONE of the country’s foremost experts on climate change has questioned the wisdom of proceeding with dockland developments in Cork and Dublin, when rising sea water levels pose such a threat to Irish cities.

UCC Professor of Physical Geography Robert Devoy said the cost of building barrages like the Thames Barrage would be very high — but such barriers would help alleviate the effects on Cork and Dublin of calamitous storm surges, which are forecast as global warming increases.

Professor Devoy, who is a member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said the Government and local authorities must, at least, consider rowing back on dockland development, in light of the large stocks of vacant commercial and domestic property still on the market.

If the projects proceed, he warned, developers will be faced with having to “engineer for rising sea levels... an extraordinarily difficult and expensive thing to do,” when experts are not in full agreement on how much sea levels will rise by. World experts disagree by as much as four metres.

Four esteemed scientists from the US, Australia, France and Germany warned on Tuesday that the impact of global warming is accelerating and sea levels could rise twice as fast as was estimated by the IPCC two years ago. The IPCC estimated that the world’s oceans could rise by 18-59cm by 2100.

The experts, who were meeting in advance of a global climate change summit due to take place at the end of the year, said ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting rapidly. They warned that if sea levels rise by over a metre, coastal cities will be swamped and up to 600 million people who live in deltas, low-lying areas and on small islands would be homeless. Bangladesh, Burma and Egypt could suffer particularly as they are low-lying.

Professor Devoy said Cork and Ireland will need “substantial defence works to help further alleviate flooding”.

“Look at the inner harbour in Cork already. During spring tides, the water is nearly at the top of the quays now. If you have an easterly storm surge, the potential for flooding is stark,” he said.

The possibility of building a barrage in Cork Harbour was considered by the city council in the 1970s, but the Jack Lynch tunnel was built instead.

A spokesman for Cork City Council’s Department of the Environment said the dockland development proposals were drafted taking account of climate change sea level rise predictions.

“As part of the Lee Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management Study, commissioned by the OPW, different options, including tidal barriers are being examined. The report should be published later this year,” the spokesman said.