2018

Dr Eugene Farrell recently participated in the 10th International Conference of Aeolian Research (ICAR X), Bordeaux, France 25-28 June. Eugene and his colleagues from Canada and USA presented research on ‘Temporal patterns of aeolian saltation from field deployment of a vertical array of high frequency laser particle counters’. This small-scale sediment dynamics work is based on field research conducted in Jericoacoara, Brazil. During the conference there was a delegate fieldtrip to the largest coastal dune in Europe called Dune du Pilat located in Arcachon Bay 60 km from Bordeaux. The dune is around 500 m wide, 2.7 km in length, and up to 130 m above sea level. The dune is a famous tourist destination with more than one million visitors per year. Eugene reports that they seem to provide the appropriate amount of facilities and services to accommodate this volume of visitors through very strategic management practices. He hopes that Ireland can learn from these types of case studies to develop sustainable tourism economies that can support rural communities and provide impetus for the young people to stay at home.