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Drought: Ireland’s Forgotten Hazard

Events Programme

Drought: Ireland’s Forgotten Hazard

17 Nov 2021

Event Duration

2pm - 5pm

Event Description

An online symposium tracing the history of past droughts and exploring how knowledge of past events can help plan a more resilient future.


About this event

This online project showcase event is hosted by the Irish Droughts: Environmental and Cultural Memories of a Neglected Hazard project team and designed to bring together researchers, practitioners, policy makers and the general public to help build a better understanding of Ireland’s forgotten climate hazard, drought.

The project, funded by the Irish Research Council’s Coalesce stream comprises partners from the humanities and sciences led jointly by the School of Geography, UCD and Department of Geography, Maynooth University with collaborators based in the School of Histories & Humanities, TCD and Wilfred Laurier University's Department of Geography & Environmental Studies.

Irish based members of the project team will share preliminary project findings charting the history of drought events in Ireland from the medieval period to the present, highlighting the evolving temporal and spatial impacts of droughts on people and society across the island. This discussion will be set in a wider international context by Lucy Barker of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and project team member Prof Robert Mc Leman, Wilfred Laurier University, Canada. The event will conclude with a roundtable panel discussion and audience Q&A designed to generate discussion and debate about how knowledge of past extreme drought events can help build resilience into future planning and policies for drought and low water management in a changing climate.

Attendance is free but registration is required.

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