scholarly journals A SOLUTIONS APPRAISAL TOOL TO ADDRESS THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TIDAL LAGOONS

Author(s):  
Kathryn Mackinnon ◽  
Helen C.M Smith ◽  
Francesca Moore ◽  
Harry Van Der Weijde ◽  
Iraklis Lazakis

The deployment of renewable energy is regarded as a strategy to combat climate change. There have been a number of global agreements aiming to mitigate climate change, the most recent of which was the 2015 Paris Agreement. Often overlooked is the vast amount of marine renewable energy available around the world’s coastlines. In particular tidal range energy is a largely untapped resource which has benefits including reduced uncertainty through use of proven technology, a high level of predictability, the ability to phase shift energy to provide base load supply and a long expected life span (100 years). The key barriers to development of tidal range energy have been environmental concerns and high capital cost. Tidal lagoons are often presented as environmentally friendly alternatives to tidal barrages, but this does not mean their environmental impacts can be overlooked. Recent developments in the UK lagoon industry such as the awarding of a Development Consent Order to Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, mean it is now more important than ever to consider the environmental impacts of tidal lagoons and what solutions are available to address them. This is challenging considering there are no operational tidal lagoons in the world yet. This study aims to: 1. Identify the key impacts through industry engagement 2. Find available solutions through systematic review 3. Select and analyze solutions using Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Ecosystem Service Valuation (ESV).

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Xue ◽  
Reza Ahmadian ◽  
Roger Falconer

Marine renewable energy, including tidal renewable energy, is one of the less exploited sources of energy that could contribute to energy demand, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Amongst several proposals to build tidal range structure (TRS), a tidal lagoon has been proposed for construction in Swansea Bay, in the South West of the UK, but this scheme was recently rejected by the UK government due to the high electricity costs. This decision makes the optimisation of such schemes more important for the future. This study proposes various novel approaches by breaking the operation into small components to optimise the operation of TRS using a widely used 0-D modelling methodology. The approach results in a minimum 10% increase in energy output, without the inclusion of pumping, in comparison to the maximum energy output using a similar operation for all tides. This increase in energy will be approximately 25% more when pumping is included. The optimised operation schemes are used to simulate the lagoon operation using a 2-D model and the differences between the results are highlighted.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Clarke ◽  
Friederike Otto ◽  
Richard Jones

<p>Extreme weather of increasing intensity and frequency is the sharp edge of climate change. Greater understanding of exactly how the risks to people and property from such events are changing is therefore of considerable value to society; it enables the effective allocation of resources for adaption planning and provides a foundation for cost-benefit analysis of mitigation policy. Moreover, the first global stocktake following the Paris Agreement aims to comprehensively detail climate change-related loss and countries’ adaption ambition. Thus there is a clear imperative for greater understanding of the drivers of extreme weather risks.</p><p>To this end, the emerging field of Extreme Event Attribution (EEA) is becoming increasingly able to attribute the specific meteorological conditions (or even the impacts) of an event to human-induced climate change. This provides a tangible, evidence-based bridge between the global phenomenon of climate change and the scales at which people live and decisions are made. However, EEA studies are currently undertaken on an ad-hoc basis, in part due to discrepancies in data availability in different regions but also the lack of comprehensive, coordinated efforts. To provide greater utility to vital policy questions, insights from EEA need to be integrated into a wider system for documenting past events and understanding drivers of change.</p><p>In accordance with this, we propose a standardised framework for recording historical extreme weather events in an inventory structure. In our method, existing hazard-loss databases such as EMDAT provide a basis for event selection and give some basic impact details. Then, additional impact information, as well as detail about the process chain leading from antecedent conditions to impacts (the ‘event narrative’), is researched from a range of academic, government and NGO sources. Finally, existing attribution literature provides the link, or lack thereof, to human climate change. The comprehensive nature of such an inventory will align with the remit of the global stocktaking process, and offers a new and valuable perspective for understanding and adapting to changing risks at both national and sub-national scales.</p><p>To demonstrate the framework, we will here present inventories of past extreme weather events for the UK and the Caribbean in the period 2000-2019. Specifically, we will explore the logic and methodology behind the inventory framework, and use these examples to consider potential applications as well as foreseen drawbacks to the concept.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Nandhi Kesavan ◽  
Latha K

Abstract Among all the threats to global diversity, climate change is the most severe cause. According to the world’s biodiversity conservation organization, reptile species are affected mostly because the biological and ecological traits of the reptiles are strongly linked with climate. To prevent species extinction, we tried to develop a decision support system that incurs the costs and benefits of reintroducing a taxon from its origin to adapt environmental conditions to conserve it from its extinction. The model was developed by applying multiple linear regressions that take the climatic variables and species traits to determine the cost and benefits for the distribution of species. The effectiveness of the model was evaluated by applying it to the Indian Black Turtle, which is an endangered species list in India evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature list. The model recommends moving the species, which is endangered, to the location where it can save itself from climate change. However, the framework demonstrates huge differences in the estimated significance of climate change, and the model strategy helps to recognize the probable risk of increased revelation to critically endangered species.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 385-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Atănăsoae ◽  
Radu Dumitru Pentiuc ◽  
Dan Laurențiu Milici ◽  
Elena Daniela Olariu ◽  
Mihaela Poienar

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aylwin Pillai ◽  
Colin T. Reid ◽  
Andrew R. Black

The UK and Scottish governments’ policy commitments to renewable energy, driven by recognition of the impacts of global warming and climate change, have led to increasing interest in all aspects of renewable energy. This article is concerned with how the Scottish Executive is able to reconcile new hydro-electric developments as a source of renewable energy with the local impacts of those developments. The outcome of a recent application for consent to construct a hydro-electric scheme at Shieldaig and Slattadale in Wester Ross provides an illustration of the issues involved. The local environmental impacts of hydroelectric development are considerable and the application of environmental impact assessment to the approval procedure for new schemes means that a much broader range of environmental impacts is now considered than ever before. The decision shows the importance of compliance with European Community environmental law, and is particularly interesting for its application of the precautionary principle to prevent impacts on protected species.


2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 687
Author(s):  
Michael Nolan

This paper explores the lessons learnt from the Optimising Adaptation Investment projects for the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency–it includes coastal settlements, water supply and rail infrastructure case studies. These projects are the first of their kind in Australia and are considered internationally as a leading example of economic cost benefit analysis. They have been used effectively to inform decision making on specific adaptation responses to climate change risks to existing and new infrastructure. The lessons learnt will be explored for offshore platforms, ports, rail, road, drainage, tailings dams, mine facilities, water, and power supply, which includes the following elements: What decision makers require to make informed decisions under the uncertainty of climate change impacts. Reducing the uncertainty through economic modelling and cost benefit analysis. Optimising the right timing and scale of various adaptation options. Benefiting from oil and gas infrastructure adaptation opportunities. To further support the elements above, the applied process for integrating climate adaptation into infrastructure planning, design and operation will be illustrated by AECOM project experiences. AECOM has completed more than 60 significant climate change risk and adaptation projects for mines, ports, water supply and treatment, energy generation, transmission and distribution, rail, road, and coastal settlements in Australia, including the report: Climate Change Impacts to Infrastructure in Australia for the Garnaut Climate Change Review.


Author(s):  
Sirous F. Yasseri ◽  
Peter Menhennett

A key principle for achieving Tolerable Risk under the UK Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) approach is the reduction of risks to “As Low As Reasonably Practicable” or ALARP. This principle is founded on the ideal of reducing risks to a point of diminishing returns where additional risk reduction would cost “disproportionally” more than the risk reduction benefit achieved. The HSE approach of estimating the degree of disproportionality between the cost and benefits associated with a potential risk reduction measure is a variation of the Cost Effectiveness approach to ALARP Evaluation. A probabilistic cost-benefit analysis method is outlined for evaluating design options and establishing whether the conditions of ALARP are met. This paper demonstrates the value of probabilistic cost-benefit analysis for the selection of a target safety level and also presents an example of its practical application by way of a case history.


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