to download report - Geological Survey of Ireland

taken in the NSS and provide a regional framework to strengthen local authority development plans and otherplanning strategies at county, city and local level. The RPGs are intended to cover the period up to 2020 withperiodic reviews, the first to take place in 2010.As the issue of landslide susceptibility can extend beyond county boundaries it is an appropriate topic to beaddressed at the regional level. The implementation of the regional guidelines may offer an opportunity toidentify areas where landslide hazard is an issue of regional significance and to develop appropriate regionalpolicies for land use planning in such areas.6.2.3 Development PlansUnder the Planning and Development Act 2000, each planning authority is required to make a developmentplan every six years which sets out the sustainable planning and development objectives for its area. The Actalso specifies which development objectives are mandatory and which are discretionary. The planning authorityis under a statutory obligation to take such steps as are necessary to secure the objectives of the developmentplan.Most development plans do not contain objectives in regard to either the identification of unstable ground or forregulating development on such land where identified (or known), apart from in coastal areas. This may be dueto a number of reasons including the relatively low occurrence of landslides to date, the lack of information onlandslide hazard, and the low intensity of development pressure in areas of potential instability. Howeverincreasing development pressure, often in remote uncultivated and undeveloped areas, from e.g. wind energy,residential and recreational activity, and also the possibility of an increase in storms and other dramaticweather events (Plate 6.1) due to climate change, may result in an increase in landslide occurrences.Plate 6.1 Damaged House at PollatomishIn this developing scenario, it is important to know as far as possible where and why landslides may occur andthe likelihood and potential severity of further occurrences. The identification of the extent of the problem inadvance will allow appropriate strategies to be adopted within the planning system both at the strategicdevelopment plan stage and also at the local level in individual planning applications.In this regard there is provision under the Planning and Development Act 2000 to include objectives in developmentplans for regulating, restricting or controlling development in coastal areas or inland areas at risk of flooding,erosion and other natural hazards. The critical consideration must be to ensure that landslide risk is firstlyidentified by the GSI and that new development does not individually or cumulatively suffer from or give rise tolandslide risks.66