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Northern Ireland Environmental Statistics Report published

Thursday, 28 January 2010

The 2010 Northern Ireland Environmental Statistics Report (NIESR) has been published.

This is the second annual NIESR and contains information on a range of environmental indicators across eight themes. Most indicators provide data on trends over time, and where applicable, performance against quantified targets.

The key points are as follows:

Demographics, transport & public opinion

  • In 2008, Northern Ireland’s population was 6% greater than 10 years previous. The number of households has grown at an even faster rate, showing a 13% increase between 1999 and 2008. Projected figures indicate that these trends are expected to continue over the next 20-25 years.
  • Air travel has almost doubled in Northern Ireland in the last 10 years, from 4.4million passengers in 1999 to 8.2million in 2008.
  • Car travel accounts for over 70% of all the journeys we make, and this has remained fairly constant over the last five years.
  • The level of public concern about climate change has increased from 19% to 37% in the last five years, and is the biggest environmental concern for the Northern Ireland public.

Air & Climate

  • Northern Ireland’s air quality has shown some improvements in recent years, and most measures are well within national air quality objectives.
  • In 2007, greenhouse gas emissions were 13% lower than in 1990, when monitoring of such emissions commenced.
  • Climate records for Northern Ireland indicate that both minimum and maximum temperatures have increased since the start of the 20th century by approximately 1.5°C. There is also some evidence of changing seasonal distribution of our rainfall with the proportion of annual rainfall falling in winter increasing, while summer rainfall has been decreasing since the start of the 20th century.

Water

  • The majority of monitored riverbodies are of a good chemical standard or better, although biological standards are lower. Lakes perform well on chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen standards, but not so well on phosphorus standards.
  • Groundwater is currently of a high quality, and industrial discharge quality and water utility discharge quality continue to improve. Drinking water quality is at the highest level recorded since 2004.
  • There were 1,237 substantiated water pollution incidents in Northern Ireland in 2008, of which 20% were considered to be of high or medium severity. This represents an increase of 3 percentage points on the previous year.

Marine

  • Two beaches (out of 24 monitored) failed to meet the mandatory compliance standards for bathing waters, as stated by the EC Bathing Water Directive.
  • Eight of the 27 marine water bodies around Northern Ireland’s shores are classified as high or good using the Water Framework Directive classification scheme.

Land

  • Soil quality in Northern Ireland decreased in 2008/09, with an increase from 21% to 39% in the proportion of over-enriched soils.
  • The number of new dwelling completions fell sharply in 2007/08, with 8,827 housing completions, a decrease of 30% on the previous year.

Biodiversity

  • Two-thirds of areas of special scientific interest in Northern Ireland are in a favourable condition. This is consistent with the previous year’s figure.
  • Northern Ireland’s wild bird population has increased by 21% in the last 10 years, but the wetland bird population has decreased by 17% since 1998/99 – 2006/07.
  • The overall status and trends of priority habitats and species, for which information is available, has remained relatively unchanged between 2005 and 2008

Built Heritage

  • Since 2003 there has been a modest increase of 166 in the number of listed buildings with a total of 8,350 listed buildings recorded by the NIEA in 2008/09.

Waste

  • 1,017,215 tonnes of municipal waste was produced in Northern Ireland in 2008/09 and the level has remained fairly constant since 2004/05, but there has been a significant increase in the proportion that is recycled or composted from 18% to 32%.

Notes to editors:

1. This is the second Northern Ireland Environmental Statistics Report, and will be updated annually.

2. There are eight main topic areas covered in the report, covering 57 individual indicators. These indicators provide the most recently available data, trends over time and, where applicable, performance against quantified targets.

3. Hard and electronic copies of the ‘Northern Ireland Environmental Statistics Report’ are available free of charge from:

Central Statistics and Research Branch
Room 4.02
Clarence Court
10 - 18 Adelaide Street
Belfast BT2 8GB
Telephone: (028) 9054 0916

E-mail: csrb@drdni.gov.uk

Website

4. All media enquiries should be directed to DOE Press Office on 028 9054 0003. Out of office hours, please contact the duty press officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.