scholarly journals Residents’ Views on Landscape and Ecosystem Services during a Wind Farm Proposal in an Island Protected Area

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vassiliki Vlami ◽  
Jan Danek ◽  
Stamatis Zogaris ◽  
Eirini Gallou ◽  
Ioannis P. Kokkoris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Mediterranean Islands ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Resident Perceptions ◽  
Farm Planning ◽  
Group Perceptions

Industrial wind farms are being developed within many protected areas, such as in EU Natura 2000 sites; this includes proposals on small Mediterranean islands, such as Samothraki in Greece. Scarce wild land areas on islands may be particularly vulnerable to landscape-scale degradation; this may have serious negative societal impacts. Samothraki’s resident perceptions were surveyed in the wake of such a proposal, in June 2018. Of 98 respondents, 48% reported they were against the wind farm plan, while 22% did not take sides. We compare for-and-against sub-group perceptions of the proposed wind farm with potential impacts on the landscape and explore residents’ opinions on ecosystem services and environmental pressures and threats. Conflict over the wind farm was prevalent; residents most frequently reported that the proposal threatens aesthetic and landscape qualities. Aesthetic qualities were also the second highest ranked ecosystem services, after freshwater provision. However, other threats, such as livestock overgrazing, top residents’ opinion of major environmental problems on the island. The questionnaire survey used provides a scoping assessment, which may assist in identifying "conflict hotspots" for wind farm development. A critical review of wind farm planning in protected areas is presented in light of insights gained from this survey and other relevant studies.

scholarly journals Cultural Ecosystem Services in the Natura 2000 Network: Introducing Proxy Indicators and Conflict Risk in Greece

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Vassiliki Vlami ◽  
Ioannis P. Kokkoris ◽  
Stamatis Zogaris ◽  
George Kehayias ◽  
Panayotis Dimopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Proxy Indicators ◽  
Conflict Risk

Within the ecosystem services framework, cultural ecosystem services (CES) have rarely been applied in state-wide surveys of protected area networks. Through a review of available data and online research, we present 22 potential proxy indicators of non-material benefits people may obtain from nature in Natura sites in Greece. Despite the limitations due to data scarcity, this first distance-based study screens a recently expanded protected area system (446 Natura sites) providing steps towards an initial CES capacity review, site prioritization and data gap screening. Results identify hot spot Natura sites for CES values and wider areas of importance for the supply of CES. Additionally, a risk analysis mapping exercise explores the potential risk of conflict in the Natura sites, due to proposed wind farm developments. Α number of sites that may suffer serious degradation of CES values due to the large number of proposed wind turbines within these protected areas is identified, with 26% of Greece’s Natura sites showing serious and high risk of degradation of their aesthetic values. Screening-level survey exercises such as these may play an important role in advancing conservation effectiveness by increasing the appreciation of the multiple benefits provided by Natura protected areas. Based on this review, we propose recommendations through an adaptive approach to CES inventory and research initiatives in the protected area network.

Developing a Flexible Platform for Optimal Engineering Design of Commercial Wind Farms

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Souma Chowdhury ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Achille Messac ◽  
Luciano Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farm ◽  
Annual Variation ◽  
Cost Model ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Layout Optimization ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Farm Planning ◽  
Wind Farm Layout Optimization ◽  
Annual Distribution ◽  
Selection Of

In this paper, we develop a flexible design platform to account for the influences of key factors in optimal planning of commercial scale wind farms. The Unrestricted Wind Farm Layout Optimization (UWFLO) methodology, which avoids limiting assumptions regarding the farm layout and the selection of turbines, is used to develop this design platform. This paper presents critical advancements to the UWFLO methodology to allow the synergistic consideration of (i) the farm layout, (ii) the types of commercial turbines to be installed, and (iii) the expected annual distribution of wind conditions at a particular site. We use a recently developed Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) based method to characterize the multivariate distribution of wind speed and wind direction. Optimization is performed using an advanced mixed discrete Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. We also implement a high fidelity wind farm cost model that is developed using a Radial Basis Function (RBF) based response surface. The new optimal farm planning platform is applied to design a 25-turbine wind farm at a North Dakota site. We found that the optimal layout is significantly sensitive to the annual variation in wind conditions. Allowing the turbine-types to be selected during optimization was observed to improve the annual energy production by 49% compared to layout optimization alone.

scholarly journals The Contribution of Ecosystem Services in Developing Effective and Sustainable Management Practices in Marine Protected Areas. The Case Study of “Isola dell’Asinara”

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maddalena Floris ◽  
Vittorio Gazale ◽  
Federica Isola ◽  
Francesca Leccis ◽  
Salvatore Pinna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Marine Protected Area ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Coastal Zone Management ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Zone Management

Ecosystem Services (ESs) are assuming a constantly increasing importance in management practices due to their key role in ensuring a sustainable future to fauna and flora on Earth. In addition, ES degradation and quality loss jeopardize current human activities. For this reason, it is essential to develop methodologies and practices able to efficiently assess environmental and socio-economic impacts in terms of ES deterioration, especially within protected areas. Norms and regulations have to be able to identify habitat and species categories to be preserved, and to determine the cost of their destruction and decline, according to a holistic vision, which includes social and economic impacts, besides the environmental ones. The paper illustrates the case study of the “Isola dell’Asinara” Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Sardinia, where an experimental methodology was developed with the aim to draw new regulations that integrate conservation measures of Natura 2000 sites included in its territory, provisions determined by the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) protocol and the Standardized Actions for Effective Management of MPAs (ISEA) project. Subsequently, in order to assess the status of ESs and impacts on ESs located within the MPA territory, an ecosystem-based approach was implemented and applied to the actions defined for the new regulation proposal. Results show that regulations are in this way valuably enriched by environmental aspects of the MPA that would otherwise be overlooked.

Supporting the Management of Ecosystem Services in Protected Areas: Trade-Offs Between Effort and Accuracy in Evaluation

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 1750007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta Schirpke ◽  
Rocco Scolozzi ◽  
Benedetta Concetti ◽  
Bruna Comini ◽  
Ulrike Tappeiner
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Monetary Valuation ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Different Levels

Integrating ecosystem services (ES) into the management of protected areas, such as European Natura 2000 sites, can improve biodiversity conservation and human well-being; yet, the assessment and application of ES remains challenging. In this study, we propose a roadmap to guide managers in the assessment of ES at multiple levels, including a non-monetary valuation in qualitative and quantitative terms, as well as a monetary valuation, and suggesting the appropriate applications related to ES mapping, communication and planning. The roadmap proceeds through four steps and along a gradient of accuracy and effort required in the assessment methods, with different levels of spatial scale, to effectively support managers. Together with the description of the roadmap, this paper provides insights from its application to terrestrial Natura 2000 sites in Italy.

scholarly journals A Spatial Analysis of the Potentials for Offshore Wind Farm Locations in the North Sea Region: Challenges and Opportunities

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gusatu ◽  
Yamu ◽  
Zuidema ◽  
Faaij
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Water Depth ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
The North ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The North Sea

Over the last decade, the accelerated transition towards cleaner means of producing energy has been clearly prioritised by the European Union through large-scale planned deployment of wind farms in the North Sea. From a spatial planning perspective, this has not been a straight-forward process, due to substantial spatial conflicts with the traditional users of the sea, especially with fisheries and protected areas. In this article, we examine the availability of offshore space for wind farm deployment, from a transnational perspective, while taking into account different options for the management of the maritime area through four scenarios. We applied a mixed-method approach, combining expert knowledge and document analysis with the spatial visualisation of existing and future maritime spatial claims. Our calculations clearly indicate a low availability of suitable locations for offshore wind in the proximity of the shore and in shallow waters, even when considering its multi-use with fisheries and protected areas. However, the areas within 100 km from shore and with a water depth above –120 m attract greater opportunities for both single use (only offshore wind farms) and multi-use (mainly with fisheries), from an integrated planning perspective. On the other hand, the decrease of energy targets combined with sectoral planning result in clear limitations to suitable areas for offshore wind farms, indicating the necessity to consider areas with a water depth below –120 m and further than 100 km from shore. Therefore, despite the increased costs of maintenance and design adaptation, the multi-use of space can be a solution for more sustainable, stakeholder-engaged and cost-effective options in the energy deployment process. This paper identifies potential pathways, as well as challenges and opportunities for future offshore space management with the aim of achieving the 2050 renewable energy targets.

Recreational ecosystem services in protected areas: A survey of visitors to Natura 2000 sites in Italy

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta Schirpke ◽  
Rocco Scolozzi ◽  
Riccardo Da Re ◽  
Mauro Masiero ◽  
Davide Pellegrino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Natura 2000

scholarly journals Building a transnational biodiversity geo-database of the protected areas in the Adriatic-Ionian Macro-Region: approaches and results from the IMPRECO Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Zangaro ◽  
Gabriele Marini ◽  
Valeria Specchia ◽  
Matteo De Luca ◽  
Francesca Visintin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Indigenous Species ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Ecosystem Integrity ◽  
Standard Data ◽  
Coastal Marine

The main objective of the project Common strategies and best practices to IMprove the transnational PRotection of ECOsystem integrity and services - IMPRECO is to enhance the safeguarding of ecosystems and ecosystem services. Additionally, the aim of this project is to tackle their environmental vulnerability by strengthening the potential of the Protected Areas in biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services conservation. This is expected to be addressed by maintaining it through their transnational networking located in the European Adriatic-Ionian Macro-Region. The aim of this research is: 1) to characterise the habitats and ecosystems involved in the coastal-marine protected areas considered; 2) to set a biodiversity baseline; 3) to understand what current ecosystems’ conditions are; 4) to build up a transnational biomonitoring programme of target species and habitats and 5) to assess their response to pilot actions. To do so, a transnational inventory of species, habitats, ecosystems and ecosystem services was established, starting with the seven coastal-marine protected areas involved in the project. Data collection was carried out using different sources of information: scientific literature, officially available data from NATURA 2000 Standard Data Forms, checklists from local biomonitoring programmes, personal observations and citizen science, historical maps and data from new in-field analyses. Data were filled in the transnational biodiversity geo-databases according to the NATURA 2000 standards about habitat features, species protection level and species features. The presence of alien species (non-indigenous species, NIS) was also acknowledged and references about data collection were provided in the databases according to the Darwin Core standards.

Characterizing the Influence of Land Area and Nameplate Capacity on the Optimal Wind Farm Performance

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Souma Chowdhury ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Achille Messac ◽  
Luciano Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Layout Optimization ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Simultaneous Optimization ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Wind Farm Layout ◽  
Farm Planning ◽  
Scale Factors

The development of utility-scale wind farms that can produce energy at a cost comparable to that of conventional energy resources presents significant challenges to today’s wind energy industry. The consideration of the combined impact of key design and environmental factors on the performance of a wind farm is a crucial part of the solution to this challenge. The state of the art in optimal wind project planning includes wind farm layout design and more recently turbine selection. The scope of farm layout optimization and the predicted wind project performance however depends on several other critical site-scale factors, which are often not explicitly accounted for in the wind farm planning literature. These factors include: (i) the land area per MW installed (LAMI), and (ii) the nameplate capacity (in MW) of the farm. In this paper, we develop a framework to quantify and analyze the roles of these crucial design factors in optimal wind farm planning. A set of sample values of LAMI and installed farm capacities is first defined. For each sample farm definition, simultaneous optimization of the farm layout and turbine selection is performed to maximize the farm capacity factor (CF). To this end, we apply the recently developed Unrestricted Wind Farm Layout Optimization (UWFLO) method. The CF of the optimized farm is then represented as a function of the nameplate capacity and the LAMI, using response surface methodologies. The variation of the optimized CF with these site-scale factors is investigated for a representative wind site in North Dakota. It was found that, a desirable CF value corresponds to a cutoff “LAMI vs nameplate capacity” curve — the identification of this cutoff curve is critical to the development of an economically viable wind energy project.

scholarly journals Legal Framework of Wildlife Protection on the Area of Natura 2000 (Emerald Network) on Wind Energy Site: Case of Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-225
Author(s):  
Olha Sushyk
Keyword(s):  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Wildlife Protection ◽  
The Eu

This article provides a comprehensive overview of European law and Ukrainian national law in the field of wildlife protection on special conservation areas on wind farm siting. In the first part, the EU law on renewable energy and some national regulations of the EU countries was examined. The focus was on legal regulation of impact of wind farms special on nature in Natura 2000 sites. In addition, attention was paid to procedural steps that must be applied to plans and projects that are likely to have a significant effect on a Natura 2000 site. The second part of the paper discusses legal issues of wildlife protection on the area of Emerald Network (Natura 2000) on wind energy sites according to the Ukrainian national law. The author argues that Ukraine has various laws which regulate wind farm siting with requiring the environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment as a legal instrument of wildlife protection. Further, specific environmental wildlife protection laws in Ukraine were indicated, which prohibit economic activities in special protected areas. Wildlife protection in wind farm sites in Polonyna Borzhava (Emerald Network) was also discussed in more detail.

scholarly journals Cultural landscapes and cultural ecosystem services in the Natura 2000 protected areas of Greece

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Βασιλική Βλάμη
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Of Greece

Ο γενικός στόχος της διδακτορικής διατριβής ήταν να συμβάλει στη μελέτη των πολιτιστικών τοπίων και των πολιτιστικών οικοσυστημικών υπηρεσιών εντός του δικτύου των προστατευόμενων περιοχών Natura 2000 της Ελλάδας. Η διατήρηση της βιοποικιλότητας είναι η συγκεκριμένη οπτική γωνία από την οποία αυτή η έρευνα μελετά τα τοπία. Οι μέθοδοι είναι διεπιστημονικές. Με αυτόν τον τρόπο, θα μπορούσαν να ληφθούν νέα βήματα για την απογραφή, την έρευνα και την αξιολόγηση της περίπλοκης έννοιας των πολιτιστικών τοπίων. Ελπίζουμε ότι αυτή η συνεισφορά μπορεί να προσφέρει προσεγγίσεις σχετικές με τη διατήρηση για το εξελισσόμενο σύστημα προστατευόμενων περιοχών της Ελλάδας. Αυτή η διατριβή παρουσιάζεται στην αγγλική γλώσσα με εκτεταμένη εισαγωγή και συνοπτική περίληψη της σύνθεσης και των προτάσεων της στα ελληνικά. Η κύρια πτυχή του έργου αφορά τρία επιστημονικά έγγραφα που έχουν δημοσιευτεί σε έγκυρα επιστημονικά περιοδικά και ένα ολοκληρωμένο χειρόγραφο προς δημοσίευση. Η έρευνα πραγματοποιήθηκε στο πλαίσιο του διδακτορικού προγράμματος μεταξύ Ιουνίου 2015 έως Ιουνίου 2020.

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