An investigation into the vulnerability to erosion of the Inishowen Peninsula Coast, County Donegal, Ireland

Abstract

With the ongoing steadily increasing number of tourists visiting Ireland since 2009, there has been growing pressure on its coastlines. This pressure has been especially prevalent since 2014 with the launch of a tourism route called the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW). This route travels across Ireland’s western coast from County Donegal in the North to County Cork in the south. In order to measure the potential vulnerability of Ireland’s coastlines, the Inishowen Peninsula, located in County Donegal and part of the WAW, was chosen for a coastal vulnerability index (CVI) to be completed. The CVI used was similar to a previous CVI applied in South Africa and used the parameters beach width, dune width, the distance of vegetation behind the back beach , the percentage of rocky outcrop and the distance to the 20meter isobath. These parameters were used to measure the vulnerability at each site along the Inishowen Peninsula with a total of 23 sites selected. From the CVI, the most frequently scored classification of vulnerability was ‘moderate’ with seventeen sites scoring within this classification. This investigation also provides suggestions for potential methods that could be implicated to manage the erosion occurring for both the sampled sites and across the WAW.