A study commissioned by Cork County Council regarding potential nature-based solutions for flooding in Midleton remains in limbo after the local authority took serious umbrage at the draft report\u2019s contents.<\/p>\n
The local authority commissioned two academics based at Trinity College Dublin \u2014 Professor Mary Bourke and Dr Paul Quinn of that university\u2019s geography department \u2014 to investigate in August 2024.<\/p>\n
That commissioning came some 10 months after Storm Babet wreaked havoc on the south-east of the country, particularly in the Midleton area which was devastated by flood waters, with a full month\u2019s worth of rainwater falling in less than two days. The overall cost of the damage wrought by the storm was estimated to be around \u20ac200m.<\/p>\n
A deal of mystery surrounded the fate of the Trinity report, which aimed to outline what impact nature-based solutions (NbS) could have if implemented in the Midleton area, which has been susceptible to flooding for generations.<\/p>\n
NbS typically involve measures such as wetland restoration, forestation, and the introduction of green spaces in urban areas, to slow run-off and enhance water retention outside vulnerable areas.<\/p>\n
While a draft report was delivered to the council by its authors in March 2025, a final version has never been published.<\/p>\n
Documents released under Freedom of Information legislation now reveal that Cork County Council compiled a substantial list of comments regarding the report\u2019s contents, taking issue with everything from typos, language and formatting, to the authors’ allegedly making assertions without substantiation.<\/p>\n
One comment from the council took issue with the report announcing its intention to focus \u201con the opportunity\u201d for surface water storage during floods, stating: \u201cThis is a report, not a works proposal\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another objected to the \u201cinformal\u201d language used in the report, after it stated that \u201cit might be good to get access to\u201d principal component analysis maps of the area, which are not available online.<\/p>\n
An assertion that areas of the catchment upstream from Midleton \u201chave a high probability of being suitable\u201d for NbS is dismissed, with the commenter arguing that \u201cthe probability is unknown… or actually low\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suggest that you should back up claims,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Further discussion in the report of \u201copportunity areas\u201d in the Midleton catchment \u201cconflict with unsuitable areas identified in study site selection\u201d, the council\u2019s commenters said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is either suitable or unsuitable \u2013 cannot be both,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The commenters complain that \u201cexact co-ordinates (are) not provided for the sites to allow for analysis of options”.<\/p>\n
Issue is also taken with the authors allegedly failing to note that some of the sites they identify as suitable for solutions are owned by multiple individuals, a fact the council describes as \u201cmisleading\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had no consultation with landowners… however you say (it will) have low\/no impact on farming,\u201d the council said. \u201cHow does flooding fields have low\/no impact on farming?\u201d.<\/p>\n
The commenters also sought clarity regarding how floodwater storage figures were calculated by the authors, and how an assertion that a \u201chigh cost-benefit ratio\u201d for the introduction of water storage NbS was arrived at.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat cost benefit have you done? This claim is unsubstantiated and no evidence provided,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Professor Bourke and Dr Quinn did not reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Cork County Council meanwhile said a second draft was delivered last March, adding that engagement with the authors \u201chas continued in relation to completion of the report\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A study commissioned by Cork County Council regarding potential nature-based solutions for flooding in Midleton remains in limbo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[246120,79,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-583262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-flood-plan","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}