A Cork Community and Researchers work together to slow down Coastal Erosion

Members of the Inchydoney community and researchers in MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine at University College Cork join forces to mitigate coastal erosion.

Our connection with the ocean goes deeper than we can comprehend. Life on earth began in the depths of this ecosystem and the ocean continues to impact our lives every day, in ways we can see and ways we are yet to understand. But human activity has altered the ocean we rely on so much – so how can we have a more positive impact and become part of the solution to protecting our seas?

In ‘The embrace of the sea’ Jimmy Murphy in MaREI and Dena O’Donovan in Inchydoney talk about their concerns regarding coastal erosion and how they are working together to better understand and address it for Blue Horizons, an online film series, presented by the World Ocean Council and produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions for Science Foundation Ireland.

Watch ‘The embrace of the sea’ to find out more

Changes in wave patterns and water levels are accelerating rates of coastal erosion. Over the course of 30 years, more than 28,000 km2 of land has been lost to erosion worldwide. The trend in increasing erosion rates are most worrying to coastal communities and researchers working in that area.

There is now the capability to manage our coastline on an informed basis such that we can understand its behaviour and be more proactive in terms of addressing erosion and climate change challenges. A reason that we need protect beaches is to preserve them for the benefit of the local communities. So, it critical that such communities also play their part in ensuring that good practices are adopted, that will minimise damage to the beach and dunes caused by human activities".
Dr Jimmy Murphy
Lead of the Lir National Ocean Test Facility (Lir NOTF) at UCC and MaREI Co-PI

Meet the Team

All MaREI Team Members
Jimmy Murphy
Funded Investigator