Estuaries and Intertidal Habitat

Our estuaries and intertidal areas are the points where freshwater and sea water mix and include lagoons, saltmarshes and mudflats. They are usually very rich in bird life, being especially important for migratory birds that spend the winter in Ireland. These habitats provide food for birds and areas where they can rest. They are also a buffer between land and sea for people. We identified 8 estuaries where habitat creation in the form of managed realignment would be beneficial for people and for the wild bird species.

The Focal Bird Species

Breeding : Teal, Coot, Snipe

Wintering : Greenland White-fronted Goose, Greylag Goose, Barnacle Goose, Brent Goose, Wigeon, Mallard, Pintail, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Scaup, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Ringed Plover, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Knot, Dunlin

Areas of Opportunity for Restoration

In our analysis, we identified eight estuary Areas of Opportunity, away from heavily urbanised areas, which had around 91 km² of land potentially suitable for managed realignment and to provide a further buffer between seas and property:

Dundalk Bay, Co. Louth
Rogerstown Estuary, Co. Dublin
Baldoyle Bay, Co. Dublin
Cork Harbour, Co. Cork
Castlemaine Harbour, Co. Kerry
Tralee Bay Complex, Co. Kerry
Inner Galway Bay, Co. Galway
Lough Swilly, Co. Donegal

Map of Areas of Opportunity for restoration of Estuaries and Intertidal habitats. Click on a square to see associated species and other information.

Restoration Measures

For both people and waterbirds living in some coastal areas, sea level rise is a worrying pressure and a threat that is growing in significance. This is a climate change induced effect caused by warming waters.

One option to protect people, property and waterbirds from coastal flooding is managed realignment. It is a nature-based solution to flood defence that involves the deliberate landward movement of coastal flood defences, allowing land historically claimed from the sea to revert to natural tidal habitats. This is a long-term solution which needs to be led by careful and sensitive planning and discussion with communities in these coastal areas that are very vulnerable to sea level rise. Habitat re-creation in some coastal areas through managed realignment is the most effective way to assist the bird species to continue to live there.