Encroachment upon protected areas within the Greater Dublin Area under two simulated futures

The Urban Environment Project (UEP) is a multi-disciplinary, inter-institutional research project whose goal is to develop a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) (figure 1) so that policy makers can explore the environmental effects of policy alternatives before implementation and make evidence based decisions. The questions and problems posed by the specialist teams (Air Quality, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Transport and Urban Sprawl) are based in an environmental framework, and the land-use model MOLAND is the engine room for producing possible outcomes and scenarios to aid visualisation and direct comparison of a selection of infrastructure developments at both regional and local scales.