Staff Profiles

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

Title Beaches & Dunes for Climate Adaptation: Training for Communities

Description This project focuses on training for community groups on how to best utilise beaches and dunes as a coastal protection option. Hands-on learning will equip participants with the skills and know-how to enhance their local beach-dune habitats as a resilient, long-term solution to coastal flooding and erosion. 

Funder Pobal Community Fund

Collaborators Achill ETB, Leave No Trace, Climate Action Regional Office

End (Start) 2024 (2023)

Links Website in development

SDGs DG13.1; SDG13.3

Title Grattan Beach Living Lab

Description We are working on developing Grattan Beach as a Nature-based Solutions, Living Lab. Grattan Beach is used by the Geography Dept and the National Aquarium to bring "learn by doing" to students and the public. This project hopes to build a more robust educational infrastructure, that will also double as a visitor attraction for Galway City, contributing to: actions on

climate change, biodiversity and community engagement; a long term plan for seaweed & blowing sand management; make space for biodiversity and recreation use.

Funder Galway City Council

Collaborators Galway Atlantaquaria, Galway City Council, Local Communities

End (Start) 2023 (2022)

Links Vision report to be published June 2023

SDGs SDG11.3.2; SDG11.5.3; SDG13.3; SDG14.2

Title Bertra Stewardship Project & Bertra Connected

Description Bertra dunes have been under severe threat of erosion for over a decade. In 2018, the Murrisk Development Association, the Geography Dept and Mayo CoCo came together to work on the problem.  This project in 2022 built on this work to develop a co-produced Vision for Bertra's future in 2050: to have a healthy habitat that provides benefits, recreation and storm protection, while allowing the beach and dunes to function naturally. 

Funder Heritage Council & collaborators staff time 

Collaborators Mayo County Council, Murrisk Development Association, Leave No Trace, Climate Action Regional Office, Clean Coasts

End (Start) 2023 (2022)

Links Bertra Vision 2050

SDGs SDG13.1; SDG14.2

Title Sand Dune Blog

Description For now, this project is a Blog on different coastal and dune topics. The hope in the near future it can become a go-to place for all sand dune info and materials in Ireland (watch this space).

Funder University of Galway staff time

End (Start) Ongoing (2021)

Links www.dunes.ie

SDGs SDG13.3; SDG14.2

Title National Dune Campaign

Description Our national campaign #ProtectOurDunes grew out of frustrations by local communities and local authorities, agencies and NGOs at the damage to our dune systems. The campaign aims to limit the damage to sand dunes from recreational activities along the coastline by raising awareness of the value and need to respect these ecosystems. We are currently working to do two Irish versions of the Coasts4Kids videos.

Funder Limited funding through ASBN CARO, and collaborators staff time

Collaborators Leave No Trace, Climate Action Regional Office, Failte Ireland, Clean Coasts

End (Start) Ongoing (2021)

Links Video series developed as part of the campaign

SDGs SDG13.3; SDG14.2

Title I Like Beaches

Description I LIKE BEACHES is now a community-led endeavour. We hope to help all those that care about beaches & dunes to look after them. So that in the future, despite climate change, they will remain part of our lives at the coast. Originally the project was a student-led NUI Galway EXPLORE project, aimed to add value & awareness of Salthill beaches using education boards and was completed in partnership with the local community and Galway City Council. 

Funder Explore NUI Galway (2014) collaborators staff time (2014- present)

Collaborators Galway Atlantaquaria, Galway City Council

End (Start) Ongoing (2014)

Links https://www.facebook.com/ILikeBeachesGalway/

SDGs SDG11.3.2; SDG11.5.3; SDG13.3; SDG14.2

Title A National Dune Inventory for Ireland

Description This is an ongoing project to create a simple list of all of our sand dune systems, and map their location. This information is available in various forms, but is not currently compiled in a simple shareable format.

Funder University of Galway staff time

Collaborators Thomas Hartnett (BSc) and Citizen Scientists

End (Start) 2024 (2021)

SDGs SDG13.1; SDG13.2

Title 3Ss Concept, Development & Field Classes

Description For my work with local schools, the public and local government over the last decade I needed to communicate complex socio-ecological processes to kids and council engineers alike. In distilling these into a simple take-away message, I arrived at the 3Ss for understanding the key components we need to consider to allow health dunes to thrive: Sand, Space and Species. Development is currently focused on producing Graphics to support the work (this is supported by CARO funding).

Funder Climate Action Regional Office for development phase

Collaborators None

End (Start) Ongoing (2019)

Links 
All you need for healthy beaches & dunes: the 3Ss 
International peer-reviewed 3Ss paper
Lesson Plans for school beach trips

SDGs SDG13.3; SDG14.2

COMPLETED RESEARCH PROJECTS  

AELCLIC Project Overview: The AELCLIC (Adaptation of European Landscapes to Climate Change) project was initiated in 2018 as a joint venture of different European universities, municipalities, regions and civil organizations to promote the generation of landscape-based networks for Climate Change Adaptation. Implemented in 15 pilot landscapes, the activity and consolidation of the networks were based on a collective work organized around different types of workshop and a common task: the joint diagnosis of the effects of climate change and the co-definition of key contents for a future Landscape and Climate Adaptation Plan (LACAP). See reports on the Project website: https://aelclicpathfinder.com

Coastal Flooding and Erosion: Post-Storm Recovery of Beach-Dune Systems in Ireland(The Maharees, Castlegregory, Co. Kerry) This field-based monitoring coastal project measured the impact of storms on the Maharees (Co. Kerry) beach-dune systems. The project represents one of the first comprehensive assessments of the post-storm response and recovery rates of beach-dune systems in Ireland and the processes that control their subsequent response. The results of the project provides some of the fundamental, necessary baseline scientific data to provide guidance in future coastal management strategies. 
Funding: Office of Public Works  

From Source-To-Sink: The response and recovery of coastal catchment ecosystems to large perturbations (Keel, Achill Island, Co.Mayo)Funding: EPA, Climate 2014 Call: Vulnerability of natural and managed ecosystems to Climate Change with a full integrated assessmentOverview: This multidisciplinary research measured the response of a small coastal catchment to extreme events in order to assess the resilience of the Irish landscape to both short- (event scale) and long-term (climate change) drivers of change. To fully grasp the implications of a changing climate in Ireland, we need to understand the complexity that drives the variability within our natural systems (climate, hydrological, geomorphological, biological, and ecological) where one small change (tipping point) in one system can lead to numerous significant, and sometimes irreversible changes, in one or more connected systems. This integrated, cross-disciplinary study measured patterns in the sediment and water routing system, specifically, the transport of sediment and solutes from the net-erosional (source) to the net depositional (sink) parts of the system. The research coupled expertise-driven multidisciplinary research with policy so as to build capacity at local and national levels.  
2009-12 Funding: INTERREG IV - Atlantic Area Transnational programme.

Atlantic Network for Coastal Risk Management (ANCORIM) The project focused on strengthening the operational capacity of decision-makers in Atlantic regions, with the aim of preventing coastal risks and in particular those linked to climate change. 
Partners: 15 EU partners from Ireland, UK, France, Portugal and Spain Total Project Budget €1.9m NUI Galway Dr Kevin Lynch lead a work package on coastal land planning. This work package initially created a database of all relevant stakeholders and available resources, and followed this by developing a didactic handbook for coastal land planners that outlined national legislative tools that supported a consideration of coastal risks in their decision-making process. He was also responsible for managing and reporting of NUI Galway budget. Other activities included: organising a national seminar in NUI Galway (120 participants), producing a set of `good practice¿ handbooks, hosting international case study visits.  

Masters student Zoe Elliott (Currently in Queensland Coast Management Unit, Australia) Understanding the sediment transport dynamics of maërl debris on a high conservation value beach system (Dr Kevin Lynch, Dr Marie Mahon and Prof. Charles Lemckert (Griffith University, Australia).  

PhD student (incomplete project): GUILLERMO CASTRO CAMBA (Currently working in OSI, Dublin) An evaluation of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for long-term monitoring of coastal catchmentsDr. Eugene Farrell (NUIG, Geography), Dr. Kevin Lynch (NUIG, Geography).

Masters student SINEAD WILKES OROZCO (LOA) Linking micro-scale sediment exchange processes to meso-scale beach-dune behaviour Dr. Eugene Farrell (NUIG, Geography), Dr. Kevin Lynch (NUIG, Geography).

Secondary airflow patterns under offshore winds over coastal foredunes: implications for aeolian sediment transport 
The project investigated the role of offshore winds on foredune development and behaviour, using field measurement of wind and sediment transport coupled with state-of-the-art aerodynamic modelling. The project brought together a unique combination of novel approaches from the engineering and environmental sciences to address the important question of the origin and morphodynamics of aeolian dunefields on leeside coasts. While the project has officially ended further journal papers are expected over the next few years due to the quality and volume of data recorded over three very successful field campaigns. Please see publications page for outputs. 
Partners: NUI Galway, University of Ulster, Coleraine, King¿s College, London and RWDI, Ontario. 
2009-11 Funding: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK.  


PhD Aeolian sediment transport dynamics 
The project was a field-based investigation of aeolian sediment transport dynamics, with the primary aim of elucidating links between short-term variables and longer-term beach-dune morphological development. The successful completion of the project has been enhanced by the publication of the findings in peer-reviewed international journals. Supervised by Prof Derek Jackson and Prof Andrew Cooper.   
2003-06 University of Ulster, Coleraine. Vice-Chancellor PhD Studentship.

Other successful funding applications and projects

2020 PhD funding for Silvia Cascone NbS dune project

2019 NUI Galway strategic fund ¿ New GPS equipment (E Farrell PI)

2019 NUI Galway strategic fund ¿ GIS facility feasibility study (with A Morley)

2015 Intertrade Ireland - travel support for applications  

2014 Enterprise Ireland - travel support for applications  

2014 MARNET travel funds 

2014 MARNET support for networking meeting 

2012 Working and Educating for Biodiversity (WEB)

2009 NUI Galway. Millennium Research Fund: Purchase of Trimble R8 GPS surveying system

2023 MARinE Monitoring Innovation Accelerator 

2022 COAST-ENGAGE proposal ¿ COST 2022

2018 Northern Periphery 2018 call: developed climate action project as Lead Partner. To look at developing climate champions to spearhead local action. 

2015 Funding Call: EU Joint Programming Initiative Healthy  Seas and Oceans (JPI Oceans). BESTµPLAST: Beach Stranded microplastics: Monitoring dynamics, abundance, fate and effects 

2014 Funding Call: LIFE Environment and Resource Efficiency Bridging Terrestrial and Marine Spatial Planning in Ireland: A Demonstration Project for Galway Bay 

2011 Funding Call: UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Mesoscale sediment budgets to coastal dunes: bridging the gaps