The PRB Research Fellowship project represented Ireland?s participation in the
European Commission DG-ENV led initiative to test implementation of the WFD in a
network of fifteen pilot river basins as part of the EC Common Implementation Strategy
(CIS). The overall aim of the PRBs at European level was to ensure that the guidance
documents produced by the CIS Working Groups are applicable to and workable within
all RBDs across Europe. Being a participant in several EU workshops on WFD and a
member of CIS Working Group C on Groundwater facilitated exposure to WFD
implementation in other countries and provided a valuable feedback mechanism to the
national working groups in Ireland.Several outputs, especially concerning groundwater, were used in the development of
national guidance for Article 5 implementation in Ireland. Towards the conclusion of
the PRB project the author acted as national EPA coordinator to collate RBD
characterisation and risk assessment results into the format required for EPA?s formal
reporting on Article 5 to the European Commission.

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Please Read Carefully Before Downloading

It is important for the EPA and the Environmental Research Community to know that the data and information products we distribute are useful to the user community we support. One way of doing this is by tracking the use of data and information in publications. Parts of or all of the datasets, data, or digital information products available here can be freely downloaded for further use in scientific applications under the condition that the source will be properly quoted in published papers, journals, websites, presentations, books, etc. Whenever possible the EPA strongly urge you to cite the use of these data, information, and web resources in the reference section of your publications. For convenience an automatically generated citation is available below which can be used immediately for citation purposes.

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Suggested Citation Information

The information supplied in the table below should be provided with all citations to this electronic resource. You are requested to format each of the fields below as required by the specific bibliographical style you are using.

An example of this citation in proper usage:

Kilroy, G.   "The Shannon River Pilot Basin Research Fellowship". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=4ad05ef0-673a-102b-aa08-55a7497570d3 (Last Accessed: 2024-12-13)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=65
Resource Keywords	Shannon, RBD, PRB Fellowship, Water Framework Directive, WFD
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2002-W-FS/5
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Water Quality
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	The EPA and the author (G Kilroy) should be acknowledged in the citation of this work. One is directed to the automatically generated citation below which includes details of SAFER.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	2
Project Start Date	Monday 1st April 2002 (01-04-2002)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Sunday 1st December 2002 (01-12-2002)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Saturday 1st October 2005 (01-10-2005)
Published on SAFER	Tuesday 29th April 2008 (29-04-2008)
Date of Last Edit	Tuesday 29th April 2008 at 13:50:00 (29-04-2008)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Tuesday 29th April 2008 at 13:49:25 (29-04-2008)

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Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
The Shannon PRB is the largest river basin in Ireland draining a land area of some 18,000 km2 in central Ireland. It includes part of 18 local authorities in the Republic of Ireland and some 6 km2 in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Carboniferous rocks dominate the bedrock geology of the Shannon PRB. Of these, the pure bedded limestones predominate in the upper reaches of the catchment. In the west, on either side of the Shannon estuary, bedded shales and sandstones of Namurian age dominate. Between the upper and lower reaches of the Basin, unbedded pure limestones and impure limestones are folded around cores of older rocks. There are some 16,000 km of river channel in the Shannon PRB, with the main channel extending 260 km from source to estuary, before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. There are over 1600 lakes in the digitized lake network for the Shannon PRB covering a total area of 440 km2 however, the majority of these (97%) are less than 50 ha, the minimum size set out in System A of the WFD (which deals with typology factors). The population within the Shannon river basin is approximately 630,000 individuals. Agriculture (73% of total area) is the principal activity in the River Basin, the dominant land use being pasture. There are some significant areas of wetland (12%), mainly peatland, many of which have been extensively developed since the 1940s for the production of milled peat to fuel the generation of electricity in local power stations. The catchment is not notably industrialised and agri-industries, such as milk and meat processing, are the most prominent. The Shannon River Basin is located in Ecoregion 17 (river and lakes) and Ecoregion 1 (transitional and coastal waters).

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In this section some supplementary information about this resource is outlined. Lineage information helps us to understand why this project was carried out, what policy or research requirements did it fulfil, etc. Lineage is important in understanding the rationale behind the carrying out of a project or the collection of a specific dataset etc. Links to web sites, applications, papers, etc are outlined to provide you with additional information or supplementary reading about the project or dataset

Any links supplied by the resource owner are stored such that they will open in a new window. Following such a link may lead to a 3rd party website over which EPA has no control in regards to contents or suitability.

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The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource The Shannon River Pilot Basin Research Fellowship. You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.

• Towards a National Soil Database View Full Metadata Description
• Quality of Life and the Environment in Ireland View Full Metadata Description
• Economy wide material flow analysis and ecological footprint of Ireland View Full Metadata Description
• Eutrophication From Agricultural Sources - Soil and Phosphorus: Catchment Studies View Full Metadata Description
• Clarianna Rver Catchment - Raw Data Collection View Full Metadata Description

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