Public & Stakeholder Engagement

The project will include opportunities to participate in public consultation.

• • Introduction
  • March 2021 Emerging Preferred Option
    • We want your views
    • How did we get here?
    • What is the Emerging Preferred Scheme?
    • Who would benefit?
    • What’s happening in your area?
    • Environmental Considerations
    • Options Considered
    • What are the Next Steps?
  • May 2018 Opening Public Consultation

 

Click on the buttons below to access some of the key documents associated with this consultation:

Introduction

Galway County Council and the Office for Public Works (OPW) are bringing forward plans to deliver the South Galway (Gort Lowlands) Flood Relief Scheme. The proposals aim to develop flood protection measures across the region and mitigate the impacts of extreme flood events.

An application will be submitted under the Arterial Drainage Acts 1945 and 1995 to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform who will decide on the scheme.

Click here to view the introductory video from Galway County Council.

March 2021 Emerging Preferred Option

Following the 2018 consultation and wider progression of the plans in late 2020 including undertaking a feasibility study, Galway County Council and the OPW are now presenting the Emerging Preferred Scheme in the 2021 public consultation.

We Want Your Views

To inform the final design of the scheme and prior to submitting the planning application, Galway County Council and the OPW are holding an online public consultation which will begin on 26 February and close on 3 April 2021. While the initial consultation period has concluded, there will be a further period of consultation during which meetings can take place on site (see Minister’s Press Release). The timing of the additional period is dependent on the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the 2021 public consultation is taking place online.

Get In Touch

• Email: southgalwayfrs@ryanhanley.ie
• Phone: +353 (0)91 509 309
• Address: South Galway – Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme Galway, County Council, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway, H91 H6KX

Leave feedback or contact the project team to answer any questions you have. The project team includes a design team (Ryan Hanley) in addition to the environmental team (Mott MacDonald).

An online questionnaire is available for you on the consultation website to submit your views.

Questionnaire

 

How Did We Get Here?

The Gort Lowlands area experienced exceptional flooding during the winters of 1994/1995, 2009, 2014 and 2015/2016 and most recently in 2020.

The design process will be developed in stages, with opportunities for the public to take part in the decision-making at each stage.

The project has benefitted from work carried out by Trinity College Dublin (TCD) Research and Hydraulic Modelling of the lowland karst network. This work was further supplemented by research carried out by Geological Society of Ireland (GSI).

An Emerging Preferred Scheme is now being presented to the public and stakeholders after detailed modelling work, engineering analysis and a feasibility study which identifies the potential for flood alleviation measures.

An Options appraisal for the scheme has been progressed in parallel with the feasibility study.

The Emerging Preferred Scheme

Overview

The Emerging Preferred Scheme- the scheme that is being presented for public consultation includes for a combination of structural flood risk management measures. These comprise; conveyance improvements, local flood protection measures, flood alleviation channels and culverts, road raising, channel maintenance, field boundary walls modifications on overland flow paths, drainage works, pumping facilities, and ancillary works.

A brief video on the Emerging Preferred Scheme is available to view here.

The Emerging Preferred Scheme can be summarised as follows:

• • Flood relief works in the central Gort Lowlands, Gort Town, Labane Area, Roo Area and Termon
  • 16km of channel works
  • 303,000m³ of excavation
  • 30 large culverts
  • Flood alleviation channels and culverts will provide a temporary surface water pathway between susceptible locations in South Galway and Kinvara Bay
  • Each channel/culvert would be developed to withhold Target Maximum Flood Levels. This will protect communities across the Gort Lowlands from a one in 100-year flood event

Who Would Benefit?

• • Flood mitigation– The scheme aims to alleviate flood risk by optimising flood storage in floodplains for a one in 100 year flood event in the Gort Lowlands area.
  • Protecting communities and businesses– Safeguarding local communities and businesses through flood resilience mechanisms to limit the impact of future flood events across the area.
  • Safeguarding local properties– The scheme is designed to withhold a maximum capacity event (i.e. a one in 100-year flood event), which will protect properties across the South Galway Gort Lowlands.
  • Transport infrastructure– Essential transport hubs and links across the area will be protected from long-term disruption, ensuring routes remain open.
  • Cultural heritage–Important heritage and cultural sites would be protected including Thoor Ballylee Castle and Visitor Centre, Coole Park Gardens and Kiltartan Church. The scheme also the potential to yield previously unrecorded cultural features of interest.

What’s happening in your area?

Further information on specific Emerging Preferred Scheme works throughout the study area is presented below.

Environmental Considerations

• • The potential environmental effects from the Emerging Preferred Scheme were investigated under the following sections:
    • Land use, Social and Material Assets
    • Cultural Heritage
    • Biodiversity
    • Water Resources
    • Landscape and Visual
  • Further environmental assessment and field studies will be ongoing throughout the identification of the final scheme set out for confirmation as part of the public consultation.

Read our presentation on environmental considerations via this link.

Opportunities to enhance area’s biodiversity will be presented where possible in the scheme design.

Further ecological assessments will be carried out as the scheme is developed prior to the planning application. The scheme will be subject to Appropriate Assessment under the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 as amended.

Options Considered

Screening of Options  

 An initial screening stage was carried out to identify all potentially reasonable flood management measures. The options that were considered viable are being assessed at the options assessment stage of the scheme development.   

Two main alternatives:

Relocation – involves moving occupiers of properties at risk to new properties constructed outside of the area of risk.  Relocation does not address issues around connectivity to landholdings, working farms or disruption to regional transport routes.  Due to the large number of properties at risk within the South Galway (Gort) Lowlands Study Area, and the residual flood risk to infrastructure, property relocation will not be given further consideration where an alternative feasible, cost beneficial and environmental acceptable scheme exists.

The Emerging Preferred Scheme- the scheme that is being presented for public consultation includes for a combination of structural flood risk management measures. These comprise; conveyance improvements, local flood protection measures, flood alleviation channels and culverts, road raising, channel maintenance, field boundary walls modifications on overland flow paths, drainage works, pumping facilities, and ancillary works.

The Emerging Preferred Scheme uses a mixture of distinct flood relief measures, each of which were considered in their own right at the options screening stage.  These include for example storage and natural water retention measures (use of natural storage in turloughs), conveyance improvements (creation of new overland flow channels and upgrades to culverts), channel diversions (such as that proposed at Caherawoneen), flood defences, among others.

Other Options

Combination of Scheme and Relocation

The scheme being presented for public consultation has been developed using information currently available, and will continue to evolve through the stakeholder engagement and public consultation process, and as information becomes available on geotechnical and environmental constraints in particular.  It may transpire that property relocation becomes a more viable option on a local basis within the overall scheme area.

Sliabh Aughty Land Management  

The Slieve Aughty Uplands cover 205 km² (43.6%) of the total Study Area (470 km²).  Understandably, the perception among the public and some stakeholders is that a solution to the flooding problems in the Gort Lowlands can be achieved through land management in the steeper Slieve Aughty Uplands.

Hydrological assessments have been undertaken by Trinity College Dublin to determine if improved land use management and attenuation works in the Slieve Aughty Uplands area would benefit flood relief in the Gort Lowlands area for the current scenario. The assessment concluded that any feasible and cost-effective works in the uplands area would have only minor benefits, their effectiveness would be difficult to confirm, and these works would not negate a requirement for extensive flood alleviation works in the Gort lowlands. Therefore, improved land use management and attenuation works in the upland areas have not been included in the Emerging Preferred Scheme. The scheme in the lowlands has been designed to account for the current flood volumes discharging from the upland areas. 
While the scheme presented for public consultation does not incorporate works in the Slieve Aughty Upland areas to mitigate current flood risk in the Gort Lowlands area, all improvements to land drainage practices by private landowners (i.e. forestry, windfarms, farmland) required in accordance with current directives and regulations are encouraged.

Do-nothing – is defined as the option involving no future expenditure on flood relief infrastructure or maintenance of existing defences/channels etc. As such the existing risk of flooding would persist within the study area. This is not considered to be a viable option as it fails to meet the needs of the community and sensitive receptors in the study area and has therefore been ruled out at the initial screening stage.

Larger Deeper Drainage Scheme

While the scheme being presented for public consultation will alleviate flooding of properties and key access routes, it is acknowledged that the emerging preferred scheme will not alleviate flooding of farmland.  In order to achieve this, it would be necessary to dig larger deeper channels and greatly reduce active water storage in natural floodplains.  Such a scheme would result in significant adverse effects on the integrity of European Sites.  This option has not been given further consideration where a feasible scheme exists which will achieve the key objective of the project, which is to alleviate flooding of residential properties.

What Are The Next Steps?

The scheme is currently in Stage I. Progression of the scheme to Stage II and subsequent stages is dependent on the successful completion of each preceding stage. For a scheme to proceed through the stages it must remain potentially cost beneficial and environmentally acceptable.

Following this consultation, the views expressed by the public and stakeholders will be taken into account in a review of the Emerging Preferred Scheme.  Once the project team is satisfied that the submissions and views have been satisfactorily addressed, a Preferred Scheme will be defined.  It is intended that geotechnical investigations will also commence at this point.

Provided the Preferred Scheme remains cost beneficial and environmentally acceptable, the scheme will proceed to Public Exhibition under the Arterial Drainage Acts (1945 & 1995).  At that stage, the scheme will again be presented to the public along with an Environmental Impact Assessment Report and Natura Impact Statement.

May 2018 Opening Public Consultation