Journal of European Landscapes - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2024

Cúpla Trá (meaning Twin Beach in Irish) is an innovative new project which aims to protect and manage the sustainable development and shift of a coastal ecosystem in Southeast Ireland, by employing digital twin technology as a platform and repository for existing related datasets, whilst being managed and structured around a landscape biography methodological framework. Funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, the overall aim of the three-year transdisciplinary project is to establish, better understand, and communicate the competing influences and priorities for this vulnerable coastal region. The region’s delicate ecosystem faces an unparalleled challenge from ongoing climate disruption, increased extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and consequent shifts in local biodiversity. This complex scenario is impacted further by a growing local population, together with a focus by local government to establish the area as a premier tourist destination. The project will adapt novel concepts and approaches to existing technology and landscape biography methodology to create a model that could be replicated in other potentially at-risk regions to work towards the protection and restoration of other natural environments, by adopting a predominantly ecocentric focus.