SEA ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT FOR THE LOUGH KEY LOCAL AREA PLAN 2015-2021 for: Roscommon County Council The Courthouse Roscommon County Roscommon by: CAAS 2nd Floor, The Courtyard 25 Great Strand Street Dublin 1 NOVEMBER 2015 Includes Ordnance Survey Ireland data reproduced under OSi Licence Number 2010/18/CCMAI Roscommon County Council. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Ordnance Survey Ireland and Government of Ireland copyright. © Ordnance Survey Ireland SEA Environmental Report for the Lough Key Local Area Plan 2015-2021 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ...............................................................................................vi Glossary ..................................................................................................................vii Section 1 SEA Introduction and Background ..................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction and Terms of Reference ........................................................................... 1 1.2 SEA Definition ............................................................................................................ 1 1.3 SEA Directive and its transposition into Irish Law .......................................................... 1 1.4 Implications for the Local Area Plan and the Planning Authority ...................................... 1 Section 2 The Local Area Plan ............................................................................ 3 2.1 Plan Format ............................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Statutory Context ....................................................................................................... 3 2.3 Vision for Lough Key ................................................................................................... 3 2.4 Strategic Aims for Lough Key ...................................................................................... 3 2.5 Relationship with other relevant Plans and Programmes ................................................ 4 Section 3 SEA Methodology ............................................................................... 7 3.1 Introduction to the Iterative Approach ......................................................................... 7 3.2 Appropriate Assessment and Integrated Biodiversity Impact Assessment ......................... 8 3.3 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment .................................................................................. 8 3.4 Scoping ..................................................................................................................... 8 3.5 Environmental Baseline Data ....................................................................................... 9 3.6 Alternatives ............................................................................................................... 9 3.7 The SEA Environmental Report ...................................................................................10 3.8 The SEA Statement ...................................................................................................10 3.9 Difficulties Encountered .............................................................................................10 Section 4 Environmental Baseline ................................................................... 12 4.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................12 4.2 Biodiversity and Flora and Fauna ................................................................................13 4.3 Population and Human Health ....................................................................................19 4.4 Soil .......................................................................................................................... 19 4.5 Water .......................................................................................................................24 4.6 Air and Climatic Factors .............................................................................................35 4.7 Material Assets ..........................................................................................................37 4.8 Cultural Heritage .......................................................................................................38 4.9 Landscape ................................................................................................................43 4.10 Overlay of Environmental Sensitivities .........................................................................47 Section 5 Strategic Environmental Objectives ................................................ 49 5.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................49 5.2 Biodiversity, Flora and Fauna ......................................................................................49 5.3 Population and Human Health ....................................................................................52 5.4 Soil .......................................................................................................................... 53 5.5 Water .......................................................................................................................53 5.6 Material Assets ..........................................................................................................56 5.7 Air and Climatic Factors .............................................................................................57 5.8 Cultural Heritage .......................................................................................................58 CAAS for Roscommon County Council ii SEA Environmental Report for the Lough Key Local Area Plan 2015-2021 5.9 Landscape ................................................................................................................59 Section 6 Alternative Development Strategies ................................................ 61 Section 7 Evaluation of Alternatives ................................................................ 66 7.1 Methodology .............................................................................................................66 7.2 Cumulative Effects .....................................................................................................68 7.3 Potentially Significant Adverse Effects .........................................................................69 7.4 Comparative Evaluation of all Alternative Development Strategies .................................70 7.5 The Selected Alternative ............................................................................................75 Section 8 Evaluation of Plan Provisions ........................................................... 76 8.1 Overall Findings ........................................................................................................76 8.2 Methodology .............................................................................................................76 8.3 Appropriate Assessment and Strategic Flood Risk Assessment .......................................77 8.4 Potential Adverse Effects and their Determination ........................................................78 8.5 Interrelationship between Environmental Components ..................................................79 8.6 Cumulative Effects .....................................................................................................81 8.7 Residual Adverse Effects ............................................................................................82 8.8 Detailed Evaluation ....................................................................................................83 Section 9 Mitigation Measures ....................................................................... 100 9.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 100 9.2 Integration of Environmental Considerations .............................................................. 100 Section 10 Monitoring Measures ..................................................................... 107 10.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 107 10.2 Indicators and Targets ............................................................................................. 107 10.3 Sources .................................................................................................................. 107 10.4 Reporting ............................................................................................................... 107 10.5 Thresholds .............................................................................................................. 108 Section 11 SEA Summary Table ....................................................................... 112 Appendix I Non-Technical Summary……………………………………Separately bound CAAS for Roscommon County Council iii SEA Environmental Report for the Lough Key Local Area Plan 2015-2021 List of Figures Figure 3.1 Lough Key Local Area Plan and SEA, AA and SFRA Stages ............................................... 7 Figure 4.1 cSACs and SPAs in the vicinity of the Plan area ............................................................ 15 Figure 4.2 Natura 2000 sites occurring outside 15 km of LAP hydrologically linked