The role women play in sustainable agriculture and rural development in Northern Ireland.

Reference: ECA: WPW/02/CASE NORTHERN IRELAND W/X0000/e

Pathways for delivery of surface water nutrients to receptors

Diffuse contaminants can make their way into rivers via a number of different pathways, including overland flow, interflow, and shallow and deep groundwater. Identification of the key pathway(s) delivering contaminants to a receptor is important for implementing effective water management strategies. The ‘Pathways Project’, funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, is developing a catchment management tool that will enable practitioners to identify the critical source areas for diffuse contaminants, and the key pathways of interest in assessing contaminant problems on a catchment and sub-catchment scale.
One of the aims of the project is to quantify the flow and contaminant loadings being delivered to the stream via each of the main pathways. Chemical separation of stream event hydrographs is being used to supplement more traditional physical hydrograph separation methods. Distinct, stable chemical signatures are derived for each of the pathway end members, and the proportion of flow from each during a rainfall event can be determined using a simple mass balance approach.
Event sampling was carried out in a test catchment underlain by poorly permeable soils and bedrock, which is predominantly used for grazing with a number of one-off rural residential houses. Results show that artificial field drainage, which includes subterranean land drains and collector drains around the perimeters of the 1 to 10 ha fields, plays an important role in the delivery of flow and nutrients to the streams in these types of hydrogeological settings.
Nitrate infiltrates with recharge and is delivered to the stream primarily via the artificial drains and the shallow groundwater pathway. Longitudinal stream profiles show that the nitrate load input is relatively uniform over the 8 km length of the stream at high flows, suggesting widespread diffuse contaminant input. In contrast, phosphorus is adsorbed in the clay-rich soil and is transported mainly via the overland flow pathway and the artificial drains. Longitudinal stream profiles for phosphorus suggest a pattern of more discrete points of phosphorus inputs, which may be related to point sources of contamination.
These techniques have application elsewhere within a toolkit of methods for determining the key pathways delivering contaminants to surface water receptors.

Segregation Preferences of Urban and Rural 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland

Sectarian violence in the Northern Ireland is often perceived to be mostly confined to cities. The aim of this paper is to explore statistically what factors contribute to segregation preferences among young people living in rural and urban areas, using the 2005–2009 Young Life and Times (YLT) survey – an annual attitudes survey of 16-year-olds. The findings show that religious and national identities are the strongest predictors of segregation preferences among 16-year-olds, regardless of where they live and what background they have. Those living in rural areas of Northern Ireland are more supportive of residential, workplace and educational segregation than those living in more urban areas. This research highlights the need for government policy to take rurality into account. Nevertheless, some variables significantly determine segregation preferences regardless of where respondents live, such as attendance of segregated schools, being female, or strength of national and religious identity. Consequently, policy initiatives should continue to address the effect of segregation, especially in relation to education, and future research exploring social class and gender is recommended. In conclusion, the perception of the violent ‘urban spaces’ and the ‘peaceful countryside’ has to be challenged.