Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Dublin Urban Rivers LIFE

The Dublin Urban Rivers LIFE (DURL) project, a joint venture between South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councils, has prevented roughly 13 million litres of polluted wastewater from entering Dublin rivers annually by using Esri Ireland’s digital mapping system. The project aims to improve water quality by finding and removing household appliances that are expelling polluted water into rivers in two catchment areas. Esri’s ArcGIS system has assessed over 8,300 homes to date and identified over 1,000 misconnected appliances. 

Misconnections tend to occur when homes are renovated or extended, and new appliances are installed. Some washing machines, dishwashers, sinks, and toilets can be mistakenly connected to the rainwater or stormwater drainage pipe instead of the sewage pipe, resulting in polluted water being discharged into local rivers and streams. 

DURL’s field-based teams use ArcGIS Field Maps to view maps of the surface water drainage network on their mobile devices. Using this app, they lift manholes in residential areas, record signs of pollution in stormwater drains, and upload their findings directly to a central dashboard.

The project team has also developed a “Lite” version of the ArcGIS solution that can be used by other urban councils across Ireland and Europe as the basis for their own water quality improvement processes. 

Dermot O’Kane, Head of Sales, Esri Ireland, said: “This project is making a huge difference to the water quality and aquatic biodiversity in our Dublin rivers, making it an incredibly important project to work on. This technology is an efficient, digital process for inspecting suspected pollution which is easy to use and resulting in both cost and time savings for these county councils. We designed this solution with the future in mind, and we’re excited to see the technology being used elsewhere to improve the water quality for more rivers and waterways across Ireland and Europe.”

Briana Shiels, Project GIS Officer, Dublin Urban Rivers LIFE, said: “The driver for the project is always the quality of the rivers. ArcGIS enables us to find as many houses as possible with misconnected appliances, as efficiently as possible, to help Dublin’s rivers reach a good standard of water quality. Project information is transparent to everyone working on the project, whether in the field or in the office.”

Lorraine Beirne, Project Co-ordinator, Dublin Urban Rivers LIFE, said: “On average, 8% of domestic properties in Dublin have a misconnection and the DURL Project has identified a misconnection rate of greater than 30% in some housing estates as we now have a better system to pinpoint these properties and take action far more efficiently. With ArcGIS, we have built a replicable, standard solution with products that most local authorities in Ireland know and use already.”

Published in Inland Waterways

About Match Racing

A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head.

In yacht racing, it is differentiated from a fleet race, which almost always involves three or more competitors competing against each other, and team racing where teams consisting of 2, 3 or 4 boats compete together in a team race, with their results being combined.

A match race consists of two identical boats racing against each other. With effective boat handling and clever use of wind and currents, a trailing boat can escape the grasp of the leader and pass. The leader uses blocking techniques to hold the other boat back. This one-on-one duel is a game of strategy and tactics.

About the World Match Racing Tour

Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) promotes the sport of match racing around the world and is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing. The WMRT is awarded ‘Special Event’ status by the sport’s world governing body – World Sailing – and the winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion. Previous champions include Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Taylor Canfield (USA), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Adam Minoprio (NZL), Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Bertrand Pace (FRA), Jesper Radich (DEN), Phil Robertson (NZL) and Ian Williams (GBR). Since 2000, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD23million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors