A Response to the Draft National Mitigation Plan. Teagasc submission to the Department of Communications, Climate Action & theEnvironment

Teagasc SubmissionThis submission details the mitigation potential of agriculture to shortly be published as an update to the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) for Agriculture and and describes how the MACC mitigation strategies relate to the measures in the National Mitigation Plan

An Analysis of Abatement Potential of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Irish Agriculture 2021-2030

Teagasc SubmissionThis report has been prepared by the Teagasc Working Group on GHG Emissions, which brings together and integrates the extensive and diverse range of organisational expertise on agricultural greenhouse gases. The previous Teagasc GHG MACC was published in 2012 in response to both the EU Climate and Energy Package and related Effort Sharing Decision and in the context of the establishment of the Food Harvest 2020 production targets

The Labadie, Jones and Cockburn Banks Nephrops Grounds (FU2021) 2022 UWTV Survey Report and catch scenarios for 2023

This report is embargoed unti the 1st November when it will be published in sync with ICES.This report provides the main results of the 2022 underwater television survey on the ‘Labadie, Jones and Cockburn Banks’ ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 2021. The 2022 annual survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV and other ecosystem data. A total of 92 UWTV stations were completed at 6 nm intervals over a randomised isometric grid design. The mean burrow density was 0.10 burrows/m2 compared with 0.12 burrows/m2 in the year 2021. The 2022 geostatistical abundance estimate was 1032 million, a 14% decrease on the abundance from 2021, with a CV of 5%, which is well below the upper limit of 20% recommended by SGNEPS 2012. Low to medium densities were observed throughout the ground. Using the 2022 estimate of abundance and updated stock data implies catch in 2023 that correspond to the ICES MSY approach of 1803 tonnes assuming that discard rates and fishery selection patterns do not change from the average of 2019–2021. One species of sea-pen (Virgularia mirabilis) was recorded as present at the stations surveyed. Trawl marks were observed at 20% of the stations surveyed

Evaporative sodium salt crust development and its wind tunnel derived transport dynamics under variable climatic conditions

Playas (or ephemeral lakes) can be significant sources of dust, but they are typically covered by salt crusts of variable mineralogy and these introduce uncertainty into dust emission predictions. Despite the importance of crust mineralogy to emission potential, little is known about (i) the effect of short-term changes in temperature and relative humidity on the erodibility of these crusts, and (ii) the influence of crust degradation and mineralogy on wind speed threshold for dust emission. Our understanding of systems where emission is not driven by impacts from saltators is particularly poor. This paper describes a wind tunnel study in which dust emission in the absence of saltating particles was measured for a suite of climatic conditions and salt crust types commonly found on Sua Pan, Botswana. The crusts were found to be non-emissive under climate conditions characteristic of dawn and early morning, as compared to hot and dry daytime conditions when the wind speed threshold for dust emission appears to be highly variable, depending upon salt crust physicochemistry. Significantly, sodium sulphate rich crusts were found to be more emissive than crusts formed from sodium chloride, while degraded versions of both crusts had a lower emission threshold than fresh, continuous crusts. The results from this study are in agreement with in-situ field measurements and confirm that dust emission from salt crusted surfaces can occur without saltation, although the vertical fluxes are orders of magnitude lower (∼10 μg/m/s) than for aeolian systems where entrainment is driven by particle impact

Tangible Data Souvenirs as a Bridge between a Physical Museum Visit and Online Digital Experience

This paper presents the design, implementation, use and evaluation of a tangible data souvenir for an interactive museum exhibition. We define a data souvenir as the materialisation of the personal visiting experience: a data souvenir is dynamically created on the basis of data recorded throughout the visit and therefore captures and represents the experience as lived. The souvenir provides visitors with a memento of their visit and acts as a gateway to further online content. A step further is to enable visitors to contribute, in other words the data souvenir can become a means to collect visitor-generated content. We discuss the rationale behind the use of a data souvenir, the design process and resulting artefacts, and the implementation of both the data souvenir and online content system. Finally we examine the installation of the data souvenirs as part of a long-lasting exhibition: the use of this souvenir by visitors has been logged over seven months and issues around the gathering of user-generated content in such a way are discussed. Keywords: Tangible interaction; data souvenir; museums; user-generated content

Identifying the science and technology dimensions of emerging public policy issues through horizon scanning

Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique [1]. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security.Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique [1]. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security