21/05/2026
🍃This week marks National Biodiversity Week 2026 and it is a good moment to talk about the quiet infrastructure behind nature protection: data
Waterways Ireland manages over 1,000 km of inland navigable waterways — the Barrow Navigation, Erne System, Grand Canal, Lower Bann, Royal Canal, Shannon Navigation, Shannon–Erne Waterway and Ulster Canal — and protects them as ecological corridors within its Heritage & Biodiversity Plan 2030.
🌊 These systems support coarse fisheries, reed and pondweed habitats, amphibians, damselflies, and the sedge warblers that breed along their margins.
NVM is proud to support Waterways Ireland's operational programmes by servicing inland water level monitoring stations and providing continuous oversight of the Netview platform, which publishes live water level data from stations across the network.
Reliable hydrometric data powers:
🔹Flow and lock management that sustains aquatic habitat
🔹Flood resilience for communities and infrastructure along the navigations
🔹The long-term evidence base for conservation, climate adaptation and Heritage & Biodiversity Plan delivery
Good environmental decisions start with good environmental data, let the NVM team support your next project
www.NVM.ie
www.NVM.ie