The senior author gratefully acknowledges the funding by the Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for the Environment (STRIVE) Programme of the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2007-2013 and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The authors would like to thanks Phillip O’Brien (EPA) for extending technical and relevant support; Mike Williams, Mike Jones and Matt Saunders (TCD), Komsan Rueangritsarakul and Mohamed Helmy (UCD) for supplying experimental data for modelling work; as well as Tom Bolger and Tommy Gallagher (UCD) for providing administrative support.Peer reviewe