European study shows damage to rural Ireland

EU: Unregulated planning procedures and unprecedented structural funding from the EU may be doing irreversible damage to the…

EU: Unregulated planning procedures and unprecedented structural funding from the EU may be doing irreversible damage to the Irish countryside as urbanisation spreads unchecked across the country, a report based on satellite images from the European Environmental Agency suggests, writes Brendan Killeen in Copenhagen

The unprecedented urbanisation, affecting all parts of the country, does not match the European norm and threatens many of the most important environmental areas, particularly wetlands, the report says.

"It looks like a measles epidemic has broken out across Ireland. The satellite images taken over the past 10 years suggest that development in Ireland has been occurring chaotically, with little or no strategic national co-ordination," said Prof Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Environment Agency.

Prof McGlade was commenting on the launch of The Corine Land Cover 2000 report, which collates satellite images of Europe over the past 10 years. The digital map of Europe's landscapes was unveiled yesterday in Copenhagen by the EEA, which has its headquarters in the Danish capital.

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The EEA plans to undertake a thorough analysis of the changes revealed by CLC2000 over the next two years. Among initial findings is an expansion of urban sprawl during the 1990s in many areas, including Italy, the Netherlands, eastern Germany and Ireland.

"We haven't studied the data with great depth yet, but I suspect that either there is no effective national strategy for planning in Ireland or else local authorities all have their own strategies," Prof McGlade said.

"What were once clear and rural areas when seen by satellite are now built up. What were villages are now towns. Small urban settlements have almost as much negative impact on the environment as large towns or cities because they have to be serviced by roads. Roads carve the land up and separate areas of environmental importance from each other. Once this fragmentation begins, our experience tells us that these sites have less chance of survival," Prof McGlade said.

According to Prof McGlade, development funding may be encouraging this pattern by attracting people and business to previously uninhabited sites.

"We certainly have to consider the fact that this trend of urbanisation may actually be encouraged by rural development funding provided under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. We hope that this report will illustrate clearly to all the various departments in Europe that their policies are having effects that may not have been intended," Prof McGlade said.

The Corine Land Cover report will enable policy-makers to draw lessons from how their decisions in areas such as agriculture and transport are impacting on finite land resources and the wider environment, she said.

Prof McGlade said if decentralisation was done in a conscious manner to existing urban areas it could be beneficial.