The Fingal Water Project

The Environmental Sustainability & Health Institute (ESHI) of the Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) and Environment and Water Services Department of Fingal County Council have established a new Water Research initiative known as The Fingal Water Project.

The Fingal Water Project underscores TU Dublin’s community outreach, partnership and innovation mission to link with and support local authorities, local and national industry and society and Fingal County Council’s commitment to improving water quality in our surface water bodies. 

This new pilot initiative known as the Fingal Water Project proposes to evaluate the use of Floating Treatment Wetlands (FTW) as a means of controlling stream-pond water quality throughout the Fingal County Council area.  Each Floating Wetland unit will be populated with a single plant species native to the pond and/or immediate vicinity.  The growth and development of this vegetation on the floating wetland units will involve the uptake of pollutants and other substances from the pond waters. 

The effectiveness of the nutrient and pollutant uptake by the vegetation will be monitored over a two year period involving both regular water quality testing and plant tissue analysis.  The outcome of this pilot study will be a greater understanding of water quality and eco-hydrodynamics in the surface waters of Fingal County Council.  This project will enhance knowledge in community water quality management and addresses the requirements of good water quality governance and control.

The TU Dublin team of researchers is led by Dr Alan Gilmer based in the ESHI / Water Innovation Research Centre (TU Dublin) in collaboration with Professor John Cassidy, Dr Eugene McGovern, Mr Ronan Hogan, Dr Melinda Lyons, Dr Vivienne Byers, and PhD students Mr Stephen Barry and Ms Vivien Pohl.