Climate maps and data to support building design standards in Ireland

The climate of Ireland is changing. Consequently, climate maps to support building design standards are being updated to inform national Technical Guidance Documents. Additionally, weather files, comprising test reference years and design summer years, are being produced for locations in Ireland to assess the risk of overheating in buildings. This project is carried out by Met Éireann under its strategy ‘Making Ireland Weather and Climate Prepared’ and funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The outputs of this project are part of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2021 under action 197 – develop specific climate maps and data for use in building design to enhance resilience in support of climate change adaptation. The climate services produced in this project will support a wide range of stakeholders, currently collaborating with Met Éireann, which include the National Standards Authority of Ireland, ARUP, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Office of Public Works, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Kavanagh Mansfield & Partners, and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. These climate services will also inform policy in delivering key national infrastructure, including housing, drainage, transport networks and building renovation.

 

The presentation will focus on the importance, data, methodology and outputs of the project’s work packages:

• Work package 1: Maps of driving rain intensity (maps of spell index following two orientations: N as per ISO 15927-3:2009 and SW as the predominant wind direction in Ireland).
• Work package 2: Maps of isotherms of the highest maximum shade air temperature (50, 100 and 120 years return periods). Maps of isotherms of the lowest minimum shade air temperature (50, 100 and 120 years return periods).
• Work package 3: Maps and gridded dataset of estimation of point rainfall frequencies based on the depth-duration-frequency model with durations varying from 1 to 25 days, 24 hours to 15 minutes, and shorter than 15 minutes (50, 100 and 120 years return periods).
• Work package 4: Maps of isotherms of the lowest 10cm soil temperature (50, 100 and 120 years return periods). Maps of snow loads (50, 100 and 120 years return periods).
• Work package 5: Current and future weather data sets (Test Reference Years and Design Summer Years) to assess overheating risk in buildings.

 

The produced climate services will be made available open-access through the Met Éireann and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage websites.