9.3 - Challenges

Meeting the increased demand for high-quality infrastructure and services will be an ongoing requirement as Dublin City grows and develops. The City is currently facing a range of infrastructural challenges:

• Ireland’s energy sector will need to be adapted to embrace a more diverse range of low, zero-carbon and renewable energy sources in order to provide for a more environmentally sustainable, stable and indigenous energy supply. The provision of secure, resilient, decarbonised, and decentralised utilities which are integrated with population growth, city development and climate action objectives, will be a long term challenge for the City.
• Another core challenge for Dublin is the need to address existing pressure on the City’s water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure, and to align the provision of critical water services with city growth targets, while also providing for environmental protection and climatic resilience.
• Climate change, rising sea levels and more frequent and severe rainfall events are contributing to greater flooding issues and putting the City’s critical infrastructure at risk. It will be necessary to adapt the City’s flood risk management response to address these issues.
• The strategic planning of surface water management will be required in order to reduce the volume of run-off, relieve overloading pressure on the drainage network, and protect water quality in the City’s watercourses. This will necessitate the use and retrofitting of sustainable drainage solutions to manage surface water in place of hard grey solutions. It will also require the Council to address legacy issues around impermeable surfaces and sub-optimal standards of private drainage construction.
• The Council will need to balance the requirement to improve the status of the City’s water quality with planned growth targets for Dublin, while also protecting and improving aquatic environments and water-dependent ecosystems through pollution control and restoration/ enhancement of the physical condition of the City’s waterbodies.
• Improving the sustainability of waste management infrastructure and practices will be critical to maximising resource value in accordance with circular economy[1] principles, as will facilitating the safe and environmentally responsible reuse and redevelopment of contaminated brownfield sites throughout the City. The Council will need to continue to support innovation in waste management and reduction in order to enhance public health, economic wellbeing and environmental protection.
• The proactive management of the City’s air quality and acoustic environment will require the Council to address the cross-sectoral factors which contribute to the City’s air and noise pollution, such as high volumes of vehicular traffic.

Balancing the increasing demand for deployment of digital connectivity infrastructure to support the digital economy/ future connectivity with the need for efficiency and co-ordination with other utility works will be an ongoing challenge for the City.

[1] In a circular economy, waste and resource use are minimised; the value of products and materials is maintained for as long as possible through good design, durability and repair; and when a product has reached the end of its life, its parts are used again and again to create further useful products (Source: A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy: Ireland’s National Waste Policy 2020-2025 (Government of Ireland)).