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There were 262,800 hectares of economic assets (e.g. residential areas, farmland) in floodplains. Of this, 54% or 142,000 hectares benefitted from flood control by upstream ecosystems (e.g. Inland Wetlands or Forests & Woodlands).
Of the economic assets in floodplains, 232,200 hectares (88%) were Sown Pastures & Other Grass, 16,400 hectares (6%) were Croplands, and 14,200 hectares (5%) were Settlements & Other Artificial Areas.
Of the 262,800 hectares of economic assets, 120,900 hectares (46%) did not benefit from flood control by upstream ecosystem services.
At 46%, Inland Wetlands provided the greatest level of flood control for economic assets in floodplains, followed by Forests & Woodlands at 26% and Grasslands at 22%.
Industries were the largest user of the flood control ecosystem service at 134,900 hectares, followed by Government at 4,100 hectares and Households at 2,900 hectares.
Following a recent amendment to Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on environmental economic accounts, it will be mandatory to report ecosystem accounts to Eurostat in line with SEEA-EA for seven different ecosystem services beginning in 2026. Although a methodology was proposed, the flood control ecosystem service was not included in the amendment, so it did not undergo testing by member states (i.e. as no reporting is required). However, given the importance of the service in Ireland, the CSO has elected to develop the methodology and compile accounts. Therefore, Ireland is one of the first countries to test the proposed methodology. The methodology is still subject to revision and in some cases, modifications have been made to the proposed methods.
The methodology used to model this service refers to economic assets in floodplains which are benefitting from the flood control ecosystem service as being 'protected'. The word 'protected' has a specific meaning in the context of flood control and for this reason is not used in this release. It is important to note that the presence of upstream ecosystems does not guarantee complete flood protection for downstream economic assets in floodplains.
It must also be stated that the model used to estimate the flood control ecosystem service does not incorporate existing flood defence measures (e.g. dams, dykes etc.). This highlights the fact that ecosystems not only provide flood control by themselves but also support existing defence measures.
The limitations of the model used to estimate the flood control service arise mainly from the datasets used. The CORINE Land Cover Accounting Layer 2018 was used to map ecosystem extent, as this was the best available data when this work was carried out. The coarse resolution and relatively large minimum mapping unit (25 hectares) means that estimates of the flood control service could be improved with higher resolution inputs. For example, Inland Wetlands or Forests & Woodlands smaller than 25 hectares would not be accounted for.
The data used to identify soil textures also led to limitations in the accuracy of the model. The data used was a soil association map, meaning it detailed the soil textures which may be found in a given area rather than the exact soil texture at any given location. This reduces the accuracy when estimating the water retention abilities at certain locations when the soil texture is not well defined.
For this iteration of these accounts, CORINE Land Cover 2018 was used as the ecosystem geospatial data source.
The geospatial data for identifying soil texture was the Irish Soil Information System from Teagasc. This was complemented with the Irish Peat Soil Map from the RePEAT Project.
Floodplains were identified using the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) flood maps and the National Indicative Fluvial Maps.
Relevant landscape features used to complement the data source for ecosystems were extracted from the Digital Landscape Models (DLM) Core Data from Tailte Éireann.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (01 July 2025) published Ecosystem Services Accounts – Flood Control Analysis 2025.
This is the first time the CSO has compiled ecosystem accounts for the flood control ecosystem service and is among the first National Statistics Institutes in Europe to explore methodology to produce this type of release. This release examines the flood control ecosystem service to understand the contribution that ecosystems make to providing flood control. In 2025, the CSO modelled the extent of economic assets such as residential areas or farmland which lie in floodplains and which benefit from flood control by upstream ecosystems. Upstream ecosystems refer to naturally occurring ecosystems such as Inland Wetlands, or Forests & Woodlands, or Grasslands.
This release is part of the CSO’s Frontier Series which means care must be taken when interpreting these results as methodologies may change and data sources may be incomplete.
Commenting on the release, Harry Hodgins, Statistician in the Ecosystem Accounts Section, said:
“This CSO Frontier release estimates, for the first time, the extent of economic assets in floodplains which benefit from flood mitigation by upstream ecosystems. These accounts quantify the physical flow of the flood control ecosystem service from ecosystems. The results presented here are based on data inputs which generally relate to the reference year 2018. While most data sources are expected to remain relatively constant over time (e.g. Soil texture data, Digital Elevation Model), the most significant change is expected from the ecosystem data. Future versions of these accounts will use the CSO’s updated ecosystem extent map which will be reviewed every three years.
This release is based on the results of a geospatial model which was used to identify ecosystems which were capable of supplying the flood control ecosystem service, as well as locations where demand for the service exists. The physical service flow was estimated by considering the areas which were in receipt of the service. These accounts provide a breakdown of which ecosystems supply the flood control ecosystem service as well as the use of the service by different economic units such as industries or households.
Supply of the Flood Control Ecosystem Service
There were 142,000 hectares of economic assets in floodplains which benefited from flood control by upstream ecosystems. The ecosystem which provided the biggest supply of the flood control ecosystem service was Inland Wetlands, which mitigated flooding in 64,800 hectares (46% of the total service provided) of downstream economic assets. Forests & Woodlands provided the second highest supply at 37,400 hectares or 26%. This was followed by Grasslands (31,200 hectares, 22%), Heathland & Shrubs (7,600 hectares, 5%), Settlements & Other Artificial Areas (700 hectares, <1%), and Croplands (300 hectares, <1%).
The total extent of ecosystems which were capable of providing the flood control ecosystem service was 3.1 million hectares. Grasslands accounted for 40% of this area, followed by Inland Wetlands (31%), Forests & Woodlands (23%), Heathlands & Shrubs (4%), Settlements & Other Artificial Areas (2%), and Croplands (<1%).
Demand for the Flood Control Ecosystem Service
There were 262,800 hectares of economic assets in floodplains. These economic assets comprised of Sown Pastures & Other Grass (232,200 hectares), Croplands (16,400 hectares), and Settlements & Other Artificial Areas (14,200 hectares).
Among these economic assets in floodplains, 120,900 hectares did not benefit from flood control by upstream ecosystems. It is important to note that this does not imply a higher likelihood of flooding for these economic assets, but rather shows these economic assets do not benefit from flood defence by upstream ecosystems. It is possible that existing artificial flood defence measures are in place for these economic assets.”
The CSO is grateful for the invaluable input from national experts from the Office of Public Works, Teagasc, and Cork City Council.
The CSO would also like to acknowledge the data sourced from Tailte Éireann, Teagasc, and Trinity College Dublin.