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The overlooked threat of land take from wind energy infrastructures: Quantification, drivers and policy gaps. Journal of Environmental Management 348, 119340
Abstract
Wind harnessing is a fast-developing and cost-effective Renewable Energy Source, but the land impacts of wind power stations are often overlooked or underestimated. We digitized land take, i.e., the generation of artificial land, derived from 90 wind power stations in Greece constructed between 2002 and 2020 (1.2 GW). We found substantial land take impacts of 7729 m2/MW (3.5 m2/MWh) of new artificial land, 148 m/MW of new roads and
174 m/MW of widened roads on average. Models showed that the number and size of wind turbines, the absence of other existing infrastructures and the elevational difference across new access roads increased artificial land
generation. The elevational difference across new and widened access roads also increased their length. New wind power stations in Greece are planned to be installed at higher elevations and in terrains facing higher risks for soil erosion and soil biodiversity. The general tendency in the European Union is to sit fewer wind power stations in mountainous and forested land. Still, this pattern is inversed in several countries, particularly in Southern Europe. After screening 29 policy and legal documents, we found that land take is indirectly inferred in the global policy but more directly in the European policy through five non-legally binding documents and three Directives. However, the current European energy policies seem to conflict with nature conservation policies, risking land take acceleration. The study provides insights for reducing land take when planning and constructing
wind power stations. We underline the need for better quantification of land take and its integration in the complex process of sustainable spatial planning of investments.
Supplementary resource (1)
... The species face three main imminent threats: land take, wildfires, and global warming, whereas livestock grazing seems to have a positive impact and skiing a neutral impact on their populations. Land take is the conversion of natural land to artificial land leading to direct habitat loss and is considered to be often irreversible and probably the most severe threat to biodiversity (Kati, Kassara, et al., 2023). The primary concern is the expansion of ski infrastructures (buildings, parking, roads) on Mt. ...
... A new road has already been constructed on Mt. Elikonas to this aim, and although the plan has not been yet authorised, such investments pose a direct threat to both species, given the fast development of the wind farm industry in Greece and the substantial land take generated (Kati, Kassara, et al., 2023). Globally threatened species such as P. parnassica and O. parnassica should be considered by Wildfires could also threaten species' populations in the future. ...
Orthoptera species are vulnerable to extinction on a global scale. Greece hosts 35% (380 species) of the European Orthoptera fauna with a high degree of endemic (37%) and threatened species (37%).
We sampled 46 plots (100 m ² ) to investigate the distribution and ecological requirement of two Greek mountain endemic and red‐listed species: Parnassiana parnassica (Ramme, 1926; Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae; Critically Endangered [CR]) and Oropodisma parnassica (Scudder, 1897; Orthoptera: Caelifera; Endangered [EN]). Species had a restricted geographical range, with two isolated populations confined to high altitudes (1527–2320 m) of Mts. Parnassos and Elikonas.
Species distribution models showed that slope affected their suitable habitat, together with the topographic position index and the annual temperature range ( P. parnassica ), and the amount of green vegetation and evapotranspiration ( O. parnassica ).
Connectivity analysis showed that P. parnassica ‐suitable habitat consisted of few larger and well‐connected patches (26 patches: effective mesh size of 1.57 km ² ) and that O. parnassica ‐suitable habitat consisted of more but smaller and less connected patches (56 patches: effective mesh size of 0.3 km ² ).
Generalised linear models showed that the population density of P. parnassica was negatively influenced by the height of herbaceous vegetation and that of O. parnassica was positively influenced by altitude.
The species face three main imminent threats: land take, wildfires and global warming, whereas livestock grazing seems to have a positive impact and skiing a neutral impact on their populations.
We assessed both species as EN after International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria and a suite of conservation measures are suggested for their status improvement.
... However, water-electric generation involves output, output, energy transformation and other issues. To ensure the transformation among various indicators, collaborative analysis is needed [4]. Then, the error-free covariance equation of single-step prediction of water power plant generation power prediction is expressed as formula (11) ...
At present, the prediction accuracy of water power plant is poor. In order to improve the prediction accuracy of water power plant. Firstly, the regression sliding model is obtained by analyzing the power sequence of the water power plant, and the regression sliding model is regarded as Kalman filter method. Then, the equation value is obtained by the state equation of Kalman filter method, and the power generation is predicted by Kalman filter method. In the follow-up case analysis, the evaluation index of the China Energy Bureau is used to evaluate the prediction accuracy of power generation. The MATLAB prediction results show that the proposed method in this paper can get better results and higher prediction accuracy.
European Union policies are intertwined with all sectors of public
administration and governance in the member states, including spatial, urban
and regional planning. Legal regulations like the Natura 2000 Directives,
funding programmes associated with EU Cohesion Policy or strategies such
as the Territorial Agenda 2030 all leave their mark on planning – yet with
considerably different effects in Europe’s cities and regions.
This book serves as a guide to navigate the connection points between EU
policies and spatial planning by introducing the logics of EU policymaking
and European spatial planning, outlining the most important EU policies with
relevance for spatial planning and presenting examples, from Austria and
Finland, of how EU policies are applied in domestic contexts. By exploring
the Europeanisation of spatial planning ‘from within’, the book acknowledges
how differential ideas about what spatial planning is and what role the EU
plays therein shape the actualised impacts of EU policies.
By providing a comprehensive perspective on the relevance of the European
Union for spatial planning, this book is ideal for students, academics and
administrators who want to grasp how the EU shapes and affects planning
practice in Europe’s cities and regions.
Soil degradation is one of the main environmental issues within the international agendas on sustainability and climate adaptation. Among degradation processes, soil sealing represents the major threat, as ecosystem services dramatically decrease or are even nullified. The increasing use of big open data from satellites combined with AI algorithms are making geodata mining and mapping techniques essential to quantify soil sealing. Different keywords are adopted to define the phenomenon. However, at present, review articles presenting the state-of-the-art on mapping soil sealing by including the most common definitions are currently not available. Hence, we analyzed: (a) impervious surface, (b) soil sealing, (c) land take, (d) soil consumption, (e) land consumption. We provide a systematic review of remote sensing platforms and methodologies to map and to classify soil sealing, by highlighting: (a) definitions; (b) relationships among study areas, scales, platforms, resolutions, and classification methodologies; (c) emerging trends and policy implications. We performed a systematic search on Scopus (from 2000 to 2020), identifying 1277 papers; 392 focused on mapping soil sealing. ‘Impervious surface’ is the dominant definition. The phenomenon is more studied by the USA, China and Italy and, ‘soil sealing’ is recently more adopted in EU. Most studies focuses on mapping soil sealing at urban scale. We found Landsat are the most adopted platforms; they are frequently used for multi-temporal analyses. Eleven methodologies were identified: automatic classifications are the most adopted, dominated by pixel/sub-pixel-based approaches; other methods include Band Ratios, Supervised, OBIA, ANN. The majority of mapping analyses are performed on 30 m resolution in areas of 1000–10 000 km ² . Landsat images are less used for smaller areas. In conclusion, as study area size increases, a decrease in image resolution with the use of more completely automatic classification methodologies is recorded. However, most studies focuses on comparing classification techniques rather than supporting policy making for sustainable urban planning. Thus, we encourage to fill the gap by developing approaches that applicable to international policies.
Soils provide crucial ecosystem services such as the provision of food, carbon sequestration and water purification. Soil is the largest terrestrial pool of carbon, hosts more than 25% of all biodiversity and provides 95–99% of food to 8 billion people. The European Union (EU) puts the concept of healthy soils at the core of the European Green Deal to achieve climate neutrality, zero pollution, sustainable food provision and a resilient environment.
Given the European Union's objective to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050, the European Commission adopted a series of communications for a greener Europe. In 2020, an ambitious package of measures were presented within the Biodiversity 2030, Farm to Fork and Chemicals Strategies, as well as the Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Climate Law, which included actions to protect soils (Montanarella and Panagos, 2021). In 2021, these were followed by the Fit for 55 package, the Zero Pollution Action Plan and the EU Soil Strategy for 2030.
Since soil biodiversity sustains above-ground life, the European Union (EU) has recently announced its new Soil Strategy to better protect soil ecosystems as part of the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Also, the EU's Farm to Fork Strategy and the Zero Pollution Action Plan aim for soil protection. However, the status of soil biodiversity protection has not been comprehensively assessed. Therefore, we explored regulatory, incentive-based and knowledge-based instruments and strategic policy documents at the EU and national levels to determine whether they adequately protect soil biodiversity. Our review of 507 literature references concluded that only eight EU member states explicitly address threats to soil biodiversity in 14 regulatory instruments while 13 countries mainly focus on implicit threats to soil biodiversity, whereas six countries do not consider soil biodiversity. At the EU level, current directives and regulations only tackle individual threats to soil biodiversity. An EU-wide, legally binding protection could ensure a standardised minimum level of soil biodiversity protection while preventing surging costs of not acting. The EU Soil Health Law foreseen for 2023 could couple land management practices beneficial for soil biodiversity with incentive-based instruments. Simultaneously, models should be designed to predict soil biodiversity, considering soil biodiversity's spatial and temporal heterogeneity.
The current perception that climate change is the principal threat to biodiversity is at best premature. Although highly relevant, it detracts focus and effort from the primary threats: habitat destruction and overexploitation. We collated causes of vertebrate extinctions since 1900, threat information for amphibia, birds, and mammals from the IUCN Red List, and scrutinized others’ attempts to compare climate change with commensurate anthropogenic threats. In each analysis, none of the arguments founded on climate change's wide-ranging effects are as urgent for biodiversity as those for habitat loss and overexploitation. Present conservation efforts must refocus on these issues. Conserving ecosystems by focusing on these major threats not only protects biodiversity but is the only available, economically viable, global strategy to reverse climate change.
The Greek National Energy and Climate Plan was validated by the Greek Governmental Committee of Economic Policy on 23 December 2019. The decisions included in this plan will have a significant impact on the Greek energy mix as the production of electricity from lignite combustion ceases in 2028, when lignite will be replaced by natural gas (NG) and renewable energy sources (RES). This work presents an assessment of the Greek National Energy and Climate Plan by analyzing its pros and cons. The main critiques made are focused on the absence of risk analysis and alternative scenarios, the proposed energy mix, the absence of other alternatives on the energy mix and energy storage, the low attention given to energy savings (transport, buildings), the future energy prices, and the economic and social impacts. This analysis shows that delaying this transition for some years, to better prepare it by taking into consideration the most sustainable paths for that transition, such as using more alternatives, is the best available option today.
Soil, a non-renewable resource, sustains life on Earth by supporting around 95% of global food production and providing ecosystem services such as biomass production, filtration of contaminants and transfer of mass and energy between spheres. Unsustainable management practices and climate change are threatening the natural capital of soils, particularly in the Mediterranean region, where increasing population, rapid land-use changes, associated socio-economic activities and climate change are imposing high pressures on the region's shallow soils. Despite evidence of high soil susceptibility to degradation and desertification, the true extent of soil degradation in the region is unknown. This paper reviews and summarises the scientific literature and relevant official reports, with the aim to advance this knowledge by synthesizing, mapping, and identifying gaps regarding the status, causes, and consequences of soil degradation processes in the European Mediterranean region. This is needed as scientific underpinning of efforts to counteract soil degradation in the region. Three main degradation categories are then considered: physical (soil sealing, compaction, erosion), chemical (soil organic matter, contamination, salinisation), and biological. We find some degradation processes to be relatively well-documented (e.g. soil erosion), while others, such as loss of biodiversity, remain poorly addressed, with limited data availability. We suggest establishment of a continuous, harmonised soil monitoring system at national and regional scale in the Mediterranean region to provide comparable datasets and chart the spatial extent and temporal changes in soil degradation, and corresponding economic implications. This is critical to support decision-making and fulfilment of related sustainable development goals.
Quantifying the dynamics of land use change is critical in tackling global societal challenges such as food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Here we analyse the dynamics of global land use change at an unprecedented spatial resolution by combining multiple open data streams (remote sensing, reconstructions and statistics) to create the HIstoric Land Dynamics Assessment + (HILDA +). We estimate that land use change has affected almost a third (32%) of the global land area in just six decades (1960-2019) and, thus, is around four times greater in extent than previously estimated from long-term land change assessments. We also identify geographically diverging land use change processes, with afforestation and cropland abandonment in the Global North and deforestation and agricultural expansion in the South. Here, we show that observed phases of accelerating (~1960–2005) and decelerating (2006–2019) land use change can be explained by the effects of global trade on agricultural production.
Achieving a climate-resilient future requires rapid, sustained and far-reaching transformations in energy, land-use, infrastructure and industrial systems. Large-scale expansion of renewable energy can play a critical role in meeting the world’s growing energy demands and in the fight against climate change. However, even ‘clean’ energy sources can have significant unintended impacts on the environment. The guidelines aim to provide practical support for solar and wind energy developments by effectively managing risks and improving overall outcomes related to biodiversity and ecosystem services. They are industry-focused and can be applied across the whole project development life cycle, from early planning through to decommissioning and repowering, using the mitigation hierarchy as a clear framework for planning and implementation. The mitigation hierarchy is applied to direct, indirect and cumulative impacts.
Global environmental goals mandate the expansion of the protected area network to halt biodiversity loss. The European Union’s Natura 2000 network covers 27.3% of the terrestrial area of Greece, one of the highest percentages in Europe. However, the extent to which this network protects Europe’s biodiversity, especially in a biodiverse country like Greece, is unknown. Here, we overlap the country’s Natura 2000 network with the ranges of the 424 species assessed as threatened on the IUCN Red List and present in Greece. Natura 2000 overlaps on average 47.6% of the mapped range of threatened species; this overlap far exceeds that expected by random networks (21.4%). Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation (non-exclusive subsets of Natura 2000 sites) overlap 33.4% and 38.1% respectively. Crete and Peloponnese are the two regions with the highest percentage of threatened species, with Natura 2000 sites overlapping on average 62.3% with the threatened species’ ranges for the former, but only 30.6% for the latter. The Greek ranges of all 62 threatened species listed in Annexes 1 and II to the Birds and Habitats Directives are at least partially overlapped by the network (52.0%), and 18.0% of these are fully overlapped. However, the ranges of 27 threatened species, all of which are endemic to Greece, are not overlapped at all. These results can inform national policies for the protection of biodiversity beyond current Natura 2000 sites.
Biodiversity hotspots (BH) cover a small fraction of the Earth’s surface, yet host numerous endemics. Human-induced biodiversity loss has been increasing worldwide, despite attempts to halt the extinction crisis. There is thus an urgent need to efficiently allocate the available conservation funds in an optimised conservation prioritization scheme. Identifying BH and endemism centres (EC) is therefore a valuable tool in conservation prioritization and planning. Even though Greece is one of the most plant species-rich European countries, few studies have dealt with the identification of BH or EC and none has ever incorporated phylogenetic information or extended to the national scale. Consequently, we are unaware of the extent that Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) of the Natura 2000 network efficiently protect Greek plant diversity. Here, we located for the first time at a national scale and in a phylogenetic framework, the areas serving as BH and EC, and assessed the effectiveness of the Greek SAC in safeguarding them. BH and EC are mainly located near mountainous areas, and in areas supposedly floristically impoverished, such as the central Aegean islands. A critical re-assessment of the Greek SAC might be needed to minimize the extinction risk of the Greek endemics, by focusing the conservation efforts also on the BH and EC that fall outside the established Greek SAC.
Wind energy is the leading renewable technology towards achieving climate goals, yet biodiversity trade-offs via land take are emerging. Thus, we are facing the paradox of impacting on biodiversity to combat climate change. We suggest a novel method of spatial planning that enhances windfarm sustainability: investments are prioritized in the most fragmented zones that lie outside the Natura 2000 network of protected areas. We showcase it in Greece, a biodiversity hotspot with a strong climate policy and land conflict between conservation and wind energy schemes. The analysis indicates that the suggested investment zone supports wind harnessing 1.5 times higher than the 2030 national goal, having only marginally lower (4%) wind speed. It performs well for the conservation of the annexed habitats and species of the two Nature Directives and it greatly overlaps with the Important Bird Areas (93%) and the roadless areas (80%) of Greece. It also greatly overlaps (82%-91%) with the exclusion zones suggested according to three sensitivity maps for bird conservation. Since land use change triggers biodiversity decline, we underline the necessity of such approaches for meeting both climate and biodiversity goals and call for a greater environmental policy convergence towards biodiversity conservation and no net land take.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global priority. To meet this goal, the Spanish government is planning 89 GW of wind and solar photovoltaic energy in the draft of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) for 2021–2030 (1). Despite the Spanish government's efforts to prevent a speculative bubble in the secondary market, there are already grid access permits for projects representing 121 GW that will be added to the 36 GW of renewables already installed (2), almost doubling the goals of the PNIEC. The new projects will affect hundreds of thousands of hectares, and there is no way to offset the huge quantity of valuable habitats that could be lost. Spain should adopt a more cautious approach to prevent a scenario in which energy goals are met at the expense of biodiversity.
Many renewables projects are planned in low-cost marginal soils of high ecological value, such as extensive cereal farmlands and wild mountain ranges harboring steppe birds and raptors that have in Spain their largest European or world populations. Photovoltaic energy needs huge amounts of land and will mostly affect declining species of steppe birds, which are poorly represented in the Spanish Natura 2000 network (3). Globally threatened large scavengers and other unique and scarce soaring birds are already paying a heavy toll due to the approximately 20,000 existing turbines, with demographic consequences for some threatened populations (4, 5). Bat-killing figures are even higher, with a minimum of 200,000 deaths per year according to estimated mortality rates (6).
Studies forecasting mortality have shown scarce predictive power (7), and when mortality hotspots are detected, conflictive turbines are virtually never stopped to reduce bat and bird casualties as recommended (8). As a large-scale approach, the best way to reduce impacts is by choosing adequate locations (9). However, updated field information necessary to achieve this goal is often not available, and projects are authorized in areas with under-protected species because their status within regional and state listings is frequently outdated. Studies designed to predict and monitor the incidence of renewable infrastructures are funded by energy companies (10), often with little supervision by governments, which precludes independence. The problem is exacerbated by the fragmentation of large projects (yielding reports of the smaller impacts associated with each part rather than a comprehensive assessment of the full project), the absence of an in-depth assessment of cumulative and synergistic environmental impacts, and decentralized administrative authority divided among the central state, regions, and municipalities.
We welcome renewables, but we urge Spanish authorities to correct these deficiencies and implement rigorous comprehensive planning based on the most updated ecological knowledge. We also call for a stronger commitment to more distributed and energy-saving policies that would reduce direct environmental impacts on biodiversity, such as energy efficiency, self-consumption, and improved energy performance in buildings.
Rapid expansion of settlements and related infrastructures is a global trend that comes with severe environmental, economic, and social costs. Steering urbanization toward well-balanced compactness is thus acknowledged as an important strategic orientation in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG-11) via the SDG-indicator "Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate." The EU's simultaneous commitment to being "a frontrunner in implementing [. .. ] the SDGs" and to striving for "no net land take until 2050" calls for relating the concepts of land consumption and land take to each other. Drawing on an EU-centred questionnaire study, a focus group and a literature review, Sustainability 2020, 12, 8269 2 of 21 we scrutinize definitions of land consumption and land take, seeking to show how they are interrelated, and questioning the comparability of respective indicators. We argue that conceptual clarifications and a bridging of the two notions are much needed, and that the precision required for definitions and applications is context-dependent. While approximate understandings may suffice for general communication and dissemination objectives, accurate and consistent interpretations of the discussed concepts seem indispensable for monitoring and reporting purposes. We propose ways of addressing existing ambiguities and suggest prioritizing the term land take in the EU context. Thereby, we aim to enhance conceptual clarity around land consumption and land take-a precondition for solidly informing respective policies and decisions.
Global biodiversity is undergoing rapid declines, driven in large part by changes to land use and climate. Global models help us to understand the consequences of environmental changes for biodiversity, but tend to neglect important geographical variation in the sensitivity of biodiversity to these changes. Here we test whether biodiversity responses to climate change and land-use change differ among biomes (geographical units that have marked differences in environment and species composition). We find the strongest negative responses to both pressures in tropical biomes and in the Mediterranean. A further analysis points towards similar underlying drivers for the sensitivity to each pressure: we find both greater reductions in species richness in the types of land use most disturbed by humans and more negative predicted responses to climate change in areas of lower climatic seasonality, and in areas where a greater proportion of species are near their upper temperature limit. Within the land most modified by humans, reductions in biodiversity were particularly large in regions where humans have come to dominate the land more recently. Our results will help to improve predictions of how biodiversity is likely to change with ongoing climatic and land-use changes, pointing toward particularly large declines in the tropics where much future agricultural expansion is expected to occur. This finding could help to inform the development of the post-2020 biodiversity framework, by highlighting the under-studied regions where biodiversity losses are likely to be greatest.
Increased efforts are required to prevent further losses to terrestrial biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provides1,2. Ambitious targets have been proposed, such as reversing the declining trends in biodiversity³; however, just feeding the growing human population will make this a challenge⁴. Here we use an ensemble of land-use and biodiversity models to assess whether—and how—humanity can reverse the declines in terrestrial biodiversity caused by habitat conversion, which is a major threat to biodiversity⁵. We show that immediate efforts, consistent with the broader sustainability agenda but of unprecedented ambition and coordination, could enable the provision of food for the growing human population while reversing the global terrestrial biodiversity trends caused by habitat conversion. If we decide to increase the extent of land under conservation management, restore degraded land and generalize landscape-level conservation planning, biodiversity trends from habitat conversion could become positive by the mid-twenty-first century on average across models (confidence interval, 2042–2061), but this was not the case for all models. Food prices could increase and, on average across models, almost half (confidence interval, 34–50%) of the future biodiversity losses could not be avoided. However, additionally tackling the drivers of land-use change could avoid conflict with affordable food provision and reduces the environmental effects of the food-provision system. Through further sustainable intensification and trade, reduced food waste and more plant-based human diets, more than two thirds of future biodiversity losses are avoided and the biodiversity trends from habitat conversion are reversed by 2050 for almost all of the models. Although limiting further loss will remain challenging in several biodiversity-rich regions, and other threats—such as climate change—must be addressed to truly reverse the declines in biodiversity, our results show that ambitious conservation efforts and food system transformation are central to an effective post-2020 biodiversity strategy.
Data on the extent, patterns, and trends of human land use are critically important to support global and national priorities for conservation and sustainable development. To inform these issues, we created a series of detailed global datasets for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2015 to evaluate temporal and spatial trends of land use modification of terrestrial lands (excluding Antarctica). We found that the expansion of and increase in human modification between 1990 and 2015 resulted in 1.6 Mkm2 of natural land lost. The percent change between 1990 and 2015 was 15.2 % or 0.6 % annually – about 178 km2 daily or over 12 ha min-1. Worrisomely, we found that the global rate of loss has increased over the past 25 years. The greatest loss of natural lands from 1990 to 2015 occurred in Oceania, Asia, and Europe, and the biomes with the greatest loss were mangroves, tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, and tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests. We also created a contemporary (∼2017) estimate of human modification that included additional stressors and found that globally 14.6 % or 18.5 Mkm2 (±0.0013) of lands have been modified – an area greater than Russia. Our novel datasets are detailed (0.09 km2 resolution), temporal (1990–2015), recent (∼2017), comprehensive (11 change stressors, 14 current), robust (using an established framework and incorporating classification errors and parameter uncertainty), and strongly validated. We believe these datasets support an improved understanding of the profound transformation wrought by human activities and provide foundational data on the amount, patterns, and rates of landscape change to inform planning and decision-making for environmental mitigation, protection, and restoration.
The datasets generated from this work are available at 10.5281/zenodo.3963013 (Theobald et al., 2020).
The new European Green Deal has the ambition to make the European Union the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The European Commission presented an ambitious package of measures within the Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the Farm to Fork and the European Climate Law including actions to protect our soils. The Farm to Fork strategy addresses soil pollution with 50 % reduction in use of chemical pesticides by 2030 and aims 20 % reduction in fertilizer use plus a decrease of nutrient losses by at least 50%. The Biodiversity Strategy has the ambition to set a minimum of 30 % of the EU's land area as protected areas, limit urban sprawl, reduce the pesticides risk, bring back at least 10 % of agricultural area under high-diversity landscape features, put forward the 25 % of the EU's agricultural land as organically farmed, progress in the remediation of contaminated sites, reduce land degradation and plant more than three billion new trees. The maintenance of wetlands and the enhancement of soil organic carbon are also addressed in the European Climate Law. The new EU Soil Observatory will be collecting policy relevant data and developing indicators for the regular assessment and progress towards the ambitious targets of the Green Deal.
Leading up to the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties 15, there is momentum around setting bold conservation targets. Yet, it remains unclear how much of Earth's land area remains without significant human influence and where this land is located. We compare four recent global maps of human influences across Earth's land, Anthromes, Global Human Modification, Human Footprint and Low Impact Areas, to answer these questions. Despite using various methodologies and data, these different spatial assessments independently estimate similar percentages of the Earth's terrestrial surface as having very low (20%–34%) and low (48%–56%) human influence. Three out of four spatial assessments agree on 46% of the non‐permanent ice‐ or snow‐covered land as having low human influence. However, much of the very low and low influence portions of the planet are comprised of cold (e.g., boreal forests, montane grasslands and tundra) or arid (e.g., deserts) landscapes. Only four biomes (boreal forests, deserts, temperate coniferous forests and tundra) have a majority of datasets agreeing that at least half of their area has very low human influence. More concerning, <1% of temperate grasslands, tropical coniferous forests and tropical dry forests have very low human influence across most datasets, and tropical grasslands, mangroves and montane grasslands also have <1% of land identified as very low influence across all datasets. These findings suggest that about half of Earth's terrestrial surface has relatively low human influence and offers opportunities for proactive conservation actions to retain the last intact ecosystems on the planet. However, though the relative abundance of ecosystem areas with low human influence varies widely by biome, conserving these last intact areas should be a high priority before they are completely lost.
The transition from fossil fuel to a green economy has led to the rise of renewable energy sources. Wind energy stands out because it is free, clean, inexhaustible, has the capacity to generate greater power, and has lower energy costs. From local to global scales, the environmental effects of wind power are frequently positive, in contrast to the negative impacts associated with fossil fuel technologies. These include air pollution, climate change, health risks, high mortality rates, especially in infants, and greenhouse gas emissions. However, all energy sources have an impact on the environment and the economy including wind energy. With the rapid growth of wind energy over the last decade and the future potential of wind power generation, strategic assessment of these environmental and economic impacts, both positive and negative, and developing ways to mitigate these negative impacts are prerequisite operations to be carried out in the overall development of human-, economically- and ecologically-friendly wind energy.
Soil erosion is one of the eight threats in the Soil Thematic Strategy, the main policy instrument dedicated to soil protection in the European Union (EU). During the last decade, soil erosion indicators have been included in monitoring the performance of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study comes five years after the assessment of soil loss by water erosion in the EU [Environmental science & policy 54, 438-447 (2015)], where a soil erosion modelling baseline for 2010 was developed. Here, we present an update of the EU assessment of soil loss by water erosion for the year 2016. The estimated long-term average erosion rate decreased by 0.4% between 2010 and 2016. This small decrease of soil loss was due to a limited increase of applied soil conservation practices and land cover change observed at the EU level. The modelling results suggest that, currently, ca. 25% of the EU land has erosion rates higher than the recommended sustainable threshold (2 t ha −1 yr −1) and more than 6% of agricultural lands suffer from severe erosion (11 t ha −1 yr −1). The results suggest that a more incisive set of measures of soil conservation is needed to mitigate soil erosion across the EU. However, targeted measures are recommendable at regional and national level as soil erosion trends are diverse between countries which show heterogeneous application of conservation practices.
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.
Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy is fundamental for halting anthropogenic climate change. However, renewable energy facilities can be land‐use intensive and impact conservation areas, and little attention has been given to whether the aggregated effect of energy transitions poses a substantial threat to global biodiversity. Here, we assess the extent of current and likely future renewable energy infrastructure associated with onshore wind, hydropower and solar photovoltaic generation, within three important conservation areas: protected areas, Key Biodiversity Areas and Earth’s remaining wilderness. We identified 2,206 fully operational renewable energy facilities within the boundaries of these conservation areas, with another 922 facilities under development. Combined, these facilities span and are degrading 886 protected areas, 749 Key Biodiversity Areas, and 40 distinct wilderness areas. Two trends are particularly concerning. First, while the majority of historical overlap occurs in Western Europe, the renewable electricity facilities under development increasingly overlap with conservation areas in South East Asia, a globally important region for biodiversity. Second, this next wave of renewable energy infrastructure represents a ~30% increase in the number of protected areas and Key Biodiversity Areas impacted and could increase the number of compromised wilderness areas by ~60%. If the world continues to rapidly transition towards renewable energy these areas will face increasing pressure to allow infrastructure expansion. Coordinated planning of renewable energy expansion and biodiversity conservation is essential to avoid conflicts that compromise their respective objectives.
India has committed to reduce emissions with a goal to increase renewable energy production to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022. Achieving this objective will involve rapidly increasing the deployment of solar and wind energy, while at the same time addressing the related challenges of the financing requirements, environment impacts, and power grid integration. Developing energy on lands degraded by human activities rather than placing new infrastructure within natural habitats or areas of high production agriculture would reduce cumulative impacts and minimize land use conflicts. We estimated that converted lands have the potential capacity of 1789 GW across India, which is >10 times the 2022 goals. At the same time, the total land footprint needed to meet India’s 2022 renewable energy target is large, ranging from ~55,000 to 125,000 km2, which is roughly the size of Himachal Pradesh or Chhattisgarh, respectively. If renewable energy is advanced with the singular aim of maximizing resource potential, approximately 6700–11,900 km2 of forest land and 24,100–55,700 km2 of agricultural land could be impacted. Subsidies and incentive programs aimed at promoting low-impact renewable energy deployment and establishing mitigation obligations that raise costs for projects that create land-impacts could improve the public support for renewable energy.
The time is now
For decades, scientists have been raising calls for societal changes that will reduce our impacts on nature. Though much conservation has occurred, our natural environment continues to decline under the weight of our consumption. Humanity depends directly on the output of nature; thus, this decline will affect us, just as it does the other species with which we share this world. Díaz et al. review the findings of the largest assessment of the state of nature conducted as of yet. They report that the state of nature, and the state of the equitable distribution of nature's support, is in serious decline. Only immediate transformation of global business-as-usual economies and operations will sustain nature as we know it, and us, into the future.
Science , this issue p. eaax3100
Meeting climate mitigation and sustainable development goals requires rapid increases in both renewable energy development and carbon storage in ecosystems. If sited with the sole goal of maximizing production, renewable energy may negatively impact biodiversity and carbon storage. Here, we evaluated the potential unintended environmental consequences of this type of business-as-usual development scenario. We spatially allocated land-based, utility-scaled wind and solar energy needed to achieve emission reduction goals from nationally determined contributions under the Paris Climate Agreement. Siting was conducted at 1-km resolution and followed a scenario where on-shore wind, concentrated solar power, and photovoltaic solar renewable energy developments were located where wind and solar resources were highest. Once sited, we evaluated the potential losses of natural lands, Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), threatened and endangered species, and carbon emissions. Over 11 million ha of natural lands can be lost, releasing almost 415 million tons of carbon storage, which equals 8.6% of overall Paris Agreement emission reduction goals. Globally we found that over 3.1 million ha of KBAs and ranges of 1,574 threatened and endanger species could be impacted, with the highest number of impacted species in the tropical countries of Indonesia (282), Malaysia (273), and Thailand (253). Avoiding land-based emissions through improved renewable energy siting can reduce these losses, potentially saving 47.5–155.9 billion USD based on social carbon costs. Consideration of these impacts will help reduce investor risk to facilitate a timely transition to a low-carbon economy.
Wind energy generation affects landscapes as new roads, pads, and transmission lines are constructed. Limiting the landscape change from these facilities likely minimizes impacts to biodiversity and sensitive wildlife species. We examined the effects of wind energy facilities' geographic context on changes in landscape patterns using three metrics: portion of undeveloped land, core area index, and connectance index. We digitized 39 wind facilities and the surrounding land cover and measured landscape pattern before and after facility construction using the amount, core area, and connectivity of undeveloped land within one km around newly constructed turbines and roads. New facilities decreased the amount of undeveloped land by 1.8% while changes in metrics of landscape pattern ranged from 50 to 140%. Statistical models indicated pre-construction development was a key factor explaining the impact of new wind facilities on landscape metrics, with pre-construction road networks, turbine spacing, and topography having smaller influences. As the proportion of developed land around facilities increased, a higher proportion of the facility utilized pre-construction developed land and a lower density of new roads were built, resulting in smaller impacts to undeveloped landscapes. Building of new road networks was also a predictor of landscape fragmentation. Utilizing existing development and carefully placing turbines may provide opportunities to minimize the impacts of new wind energy facilities.
The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for urgent actions to reduce global biodiversity loss. Here, we synthesize >44,000 articles published in the past decade to assess the research focus on global drivers of loss. Relative research efforts on different drivers are not well aligned with their assessed impact, and multiple driver interactions are hardly considered. Research on drivers of biodiversity loss needs urgent realignment to match predicted severity and inform policy goals.
The mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services, an initiative under the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, sets the basis for national ecosystem assessments in EU Member States, including Greece. The highly diverse and heterogeneous Greek landscape provides multiple ecosystem services (ES) and benefits to society. However, the rich knowledge base corresponds to limited research to support a national ecosystem assessment in Greece. In this paper, we apply a rapid method to map ecosystem types and quantify ES supply provided by mountainous protected areas. Using habitat type level data, we created a detailed ecosystem type map that was used as a baseline to assess the supply of provisioning and regulating and maintenance ES. We also applied a site-oriented approach to record and score the ES supply in each protected area. Summing up individual ES supply resulted in a total ES supply map which was used to identify ES hot spot areas within the Greek Natura 2000 mountainous sites. The results: (1) corroborate the hypothesis that protected areas should be treated as high value bio-physical and social-cultural complexes accounting for a significant part of the national capital; (2) highlight data gaps at the national level and limitations of ES mapping methods under such data restrictions; (3) are intended to provide to stakeholders and decision-makers, baseline information for future applied research and conservation management actions.EDITED BY Matthias Schröter
Wind farm development can combat climate change but may also threaten bird populations’ persistence through collision with wind turbine blades if such development is improperly planned strategically and cumulatively. Such improper planning may often occur. Numerous wind farms are planned in a region hosting the only cinereous vulture population in south-eastern Europe. We combined range use modelling and a Collision Risk Model (CRM) to predict the cumulative collision mortality for cinereous vulture under all operating and proposed wind farms. Four different vulture avoidance rates were considered in the CRM. Cumulative collision mortality was expected to be eight to ten times greater in the future (proposed and operating wind farms) than currently (operating wind farms), equivalent to 44% of the current population (103 individuals) if all proposals are authorized (2744 MW). Even under the most optimistic scenario whereby authorized proposals will not collectively exceed the national target for wind harnessing in the study area (960 MW), cumulative collision mortality would still be high (17% of current population) and likely lead to population extinction. Under any wind farm proposal scenario, over 92% of expected deaths would occur in the core area of the population, further implying inadequate spatial planning and implementation of relevant European legislation with scant regard for governmental obligations to protect key species. On the basis of a sensitivity map we derive a spatially explicit solution that could meet the national target of wind harnessing with a minimum conservation cost of less than 1% population loss providing that the population mortality (5.2%) caused by the operating wind farms in the core area would be totally mitigated. Under other scenarios, the vulture population would probably be at serious risk of extinction. Our ‘win-win’ approach is appropriate to other potential conflicts where wind farms may cumulatively threaten wildlife populations.
Too many roads
Roads have done much to help humanity spread across the planet and maintain global movement and trade. However, roads also damage wild areas and rapidly contribute to habitat degradation and species loss. Ibisch et al. cataloged the world's roads. Though most of the world is not covered by roads, it is fragmented by them, with only 7% of land patches created by roads being greater than 100 km ² . Furthermore, environmental protection of roadless areas is insufficient, which could lead to further degradation of the world's remaining wildernesses.
Science , this issue p. 1423
Humans have altered terrestrial ecosystems for millennia [1], yet wilderness areas still remain as vital refugia where natural ecological and evolutionary processes operate with minimal human disturbance [2-4], underpinning key regional- and planetary-scale functions [5, 6]. Despite the myriad values of wilderness areas-as critical strongholds for endangered biodiversity [7], for carbon storage and sequestration [8], for buffering and regulating local climates [9], and for supporting many of the world's most politically and economically marginalized communities [10]-they are almost entirely ignored in multilateral environmental agreements. This is because they are assumed to be relatively free from threatening processes and therefore are not a priority for conservation efforts [11, 12]. Here we challenge this assertion using new comparable maps of global wilderness following methods established in the original "last of the wild" analysis [13] to examine the change in extent since the early 1990s. We demonstrate alarming losses comprising one-tenth (3.3 million km(2)) of global wilderness areas over the last two decades, particularly in the Amazon (30%) and central Africa (14%). We assess increases in the protection of wilderness over the same time frame and show that these efforts are failing to keep pace with the rate of wilderness loss, which is nearly double the rate of protection. Our findings underscore an immediate need for international policies to recognize the vital values of wilderness and the unprecedented threats they face and to underscore urgent large-scale, multifaceted actions needed to maintain them.
Because of the increasing pressures exerted on soil, below-ground life is under threat. Knowledge-based rankings of potential threats to different components of soil biodiversity were developed in order to assess the spatial distribution of threats on a European scale. A list of 13 potential threats to soil biodiversity was proposed to experts with different backgrounds in order to assess the potential for three major components of soil biodiversity: soil microorganisms, fauna, and biological functions. This approach allowed us to obtain knowledge-based rankings of threats. These classifications formed the basis for the development of indices through an additive aggregation model that, along with ad-hoc proxies for each pressure, allowed us to preliminarily assess the spatial patterns of potential threats. Intensive exploitation was identified as the highest pressure. In contrast, the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture was considered as the threat with least potential. The potential impact of climate change showed the highest uncertainty. Fourteen out of the 27 considered countries have more than 40% of their soils with moderate-high to high potential risk for all three components of soil biodiversity. Arable soils are the most exposed to pressures. Soils within the boreal biogeographic region showed the lowest risk potential. The majority of soils at risk are outside the boundaries of protected areas. First maps of risks to three components of soil biodiversity based on the current scientific knowledge were developed. Despite the intrinsic limits of knowledge-based assessments, a remarkable potential risk to soil biodiversity was observed. Guidelines to preliminarily identify and circumscribe soils potentially at risk are provided. This approach may be used in future research to assess threat at both local and global scale and identify areas of possible risk and, subsequently, design appropriate strategies for monitoring and protection of soil biota.
Soils are subject to varying degrees of direct or indirect human disturbance, constituting a major global change driver. Factoring out natural from direct and indirect human influence is not always straightforward, but some human activities have clear impacts. These include land use change, land management, and land degradation (erosion, compaction, sealing and salinization). The intensity of land use also exerts a great impact on soils, and soils are also subject to indirect impacts arising from human activity, such as acid deposition (sulphur and nitrogen) and heavy metal pollution. In this critical review, we report the state-of-the-art understanding of these global change pressures on soils, identify knowledge gaps and research challenges, and highlight actions and policies to minimise adverse environmental impacts arising from these global change drivers. Soils are central to considerations of what constitutes sustainable intensification. Therefore, ensuring that vulnerable and high environmental value soils are considered when protecting important habitats and ecosystems, will help to reduce the pressure on land from global change drivers. To ensure that soils are protected as part of wider environmental efforts, a global soil resilience programme should be considered, to monitor, recover or sustain soil fertility and function, and to enhance the ecosystem services provided by soils. Soils cannot, and should not, be considered in isolation of the ecosystems that they underpin and vice versa. The role of soils in supporting ecosystems and natural capital needs greater recognition. The lasting legacy of the International Year of Soils in 2015 should be to put soils at the centre of policy supporting environmental protection and sustainable development. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Determination of optimal location for wind farm is a challenging task influenced by several decision criteria and factors subject to human. This case study done proposes an integrated decision support framework to investigate the spatial wind farm suitability based on F-AHP (Fuzzy-Analytical Hierarchy Process) together with Q-GIS (Quantum-Geographic Information System) tool. Firstly, spatial analysis and integration of nine-exclusion factors were included to identify the unsuitable sites. Next, F-AHP-based MCDM (Multi Criteria Decision Making) analysis was employed to obtain criteria weights of seven evaluation factors. Unlike traditional AHP method, the proposed F-AHP method is much flexible to deal with intermediate linguistic variable. F-AHP results reveal that wind speed is the most important criteria followed by power Tr. lines with weighted value of 33.05% and 20.95% respectively. The thematic suitability map was developed on Q-GIS platform to classify from “least suitable” to “most suitable” classes. The final suitable map indicates 26.09 km² and 138.42 km² area are most suitable and highly suitable respectively for wind farm establishment. This study is also supported with ground measurement wind resource data collected through a WMS (Weather Monitoring Station) installed at “most suitable” region of suitability indexed class.
Preserving ecosystems of high ecological integrity is a crucial target in Biodiversity Strategies, also serving the 10 % target of strict land protection in the European Union (EU). We recommend roadless mapping to delineate wilderness and monitor progress against loss in natural areas. We mapped Greece's roadless land and assessed its ecological attributes. It accounted for 6.1 % of Greece and comprised 451 roadless sites of size over 1 km2: 389 roadless areas and 62 fully roadless islands. Roadless sites occurred in mountains and islands, were undeveloped (no artificial land), undisturbed (no major pressures, <1 % agricultural activity, low Human Influence Index), and natural (>99 % of natural and seminatural vegetation cover, 68 % of their extent in the Natura 2000 network). They also lay in a wilderness continuum of low landscape fragmentation index. Most roadless sites (302) were larger than 10 km2. Larger roadless areas occurred more in higher mountains and steeper terrains, had a lower Human Influence Index and a better Natura 2000 coverage. Roadless sites demonstrated a buffering capacity against naturalness loss and fires (2.5 times lower percentage of burnt land than the national average) but were vulnerable to Renewable Energy Sources deployment, particularly wind farms (33 % of roadless areas might be affected). In support of a roadless policy we suggest using roadless sites to delimit the strictly protected zones in the EU (and Greece), to map primary-old-growth forests, and pinpoint new candidate protected areas. We strongly recommend revisiting the REPowerEU plan to define roadless sites as non-go-to areas for relevant infrastructure deployments.
Wind-photovoltaic-shared energy storage system can improve the utilization efficiency of renewable energy resources while reducing the idle rate of energy storage resources. Using the geographic information system (GIS) and the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, a two-stage evaluation model is first developed for site selection of wind-photovoltaic-shared energy storage projects. In the first stage, infeasible alternatives are ruled out due to veto identification. In the second stage, the fuzzy MCDM method is applied to further merit selection. Firstly, the comprehensive criteria system is built, and evaluation data is collected using probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) to ensure the comprehensiveness and scientificity of decision. Then, the new score function based on compromise theory are proposed. Thirdly, the criteria weights are calculated using the improved Decision-Making and Trial Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach. Finally, the improved gained and lost dominance score (GLDS) method is used to rank alternatives. To test model's feasibility, an empirical study is conducted in Chifeng City. The alternative A1 appears to be extremely prominent in the results. The model's stability and reliability are demonstrated by sensitivity and comparative analysis. This study aids in the layout of wind-photovoltaic-shared energy storage projects and broadens the application scopes of GIS and MCDM method.
Energy is an integral part of economic growth and social development. Renewable energy sources are naturally occurring, which can help in reducing the dependency on non-renewable resources. The increasing effects of climate change have led to the utilization of renewable energy resources for power generation, among which wind is one of the significant sources of power generation. It provides a reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly alternative contributing to national energy security in the current age of decreasing global reserves of non-renewable resources across the globe. This paper reviews the wind energy technologies used, mainly focusing on the types of turbines used and their future scope. Further, the paper briefly discusses certain future wind generation technologies, namely airborne, offshore, smart rotors, multi-rotors, and other small wind turbine technologies. It also briefly discusses ways to improve the efficiency of different turbine generation technologies, majorly non-conventional ideas of wind turbine technologies based on cross axis wind turbine (CAWT), vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), magnetic-based wind turbine. Overall, the summarization of wind energy here consists of four aspects: (1) wind turbine structure, (2) wind power generation technologies, (3) wind energy assessment methodologies, (4) limitation of developed technologies and future scope of wind energy development.
On 18 January 2022, the Greek government banned road construction in six Natura 2000 roadless mountainous areas, triggering a broader national roadless policy. Road sprawl is a key catalyst of land use change, which is the greatest threat to biodiversity worldwide. For years, scientists have called for halting infrastructure expansion, including roads, to protect biodiversity with little success. Greece’s policy should serve as a model for the EU
Climate plays a major role in shaping biodiversity patterns over time and space, with ongoing changes leading to the reorganization of ecosystems, which challenges conservation initiatives. Identifying areas that could serve as possible climate-change refugia for future biodiversity is, thus, critical for both conservation and management. Here, we identify potential future climatic refugia within the Euro-Mediterranean biome, which is a global biodiversity hotspot, while accounting for multiple emission climate change projections over the next 50 years. We developed two metrics of climatic variability: temporal stability and spatial heterogeneity. We then used a systematic conservation planning approach to identify climate-based priority areas. While we used a climate-based, species-neutral methodology, we deliberately implemented low climatic velocity thresholds, so that the identified climatic refugia would even be compatible with the needs of species with low dispersal capacity, such as plants. Our projections showed that future climatic refugia would be more frequently observed in mid-altitudes, for gradients with steep elevations, and mainly in the eastern part of the Euro-Mediterranean biome, with possible conflicts with existing land uses and future conservation implications. Climatic, land use, and topography results indicated that only a limited number of refugia would be hosted by high elevation habitats (>1500 m), raising possible concerns about the biodiversity of Mediterranean mountain regions. Our analyses show that the current network of protected areas captures future climatic refugia disproportionally, despite their importance for safeguarding present and future biodiversity in the Mediterranean. Key climatic refugia could limit the impacts of future climate change on biodiversity in mid-altitude and mountainous regions, and should be included in management guidelines for a climate-ready conservation design in the Mediterranean biome.
Differing estimates have emerged about how much land or water area is used by existing wind farms and how much power can be obtained from that area. Whereas, no single unique method exists to define wind farm spacing area, the spacing area (thus installed and output power densities) of a wind farm can be determined in a way to meet specific logical criteria, This study proposes a new, intuitive, data based, automatized method of estimating spacing areas occupied by existing onshore and offshore wind farms worldwide. The method eliminates the erroneous counting of space outside of wind farm boundaries, space between clusters of turbines, and overlapping space that results when assuming a large fixed area around each turbine. At least one of three types of extra space has incorrectly been included in all calculations of wind farm areas to date. Unlike most previous methods, this method also ensures that the addition of a wind turbine to a farm increases the overall required spacing area of the farm. The study then uses data from over 1600 operating wind turbines in 16 onshore and 7 offshore wind farms in 13 countries across 5 continents during the period 2016–2018 to quantify installed and output power densities of these farms. Finally, it compares results with estimates from other studies. Results indicate that the mean (range) installed and output power densities of onshore wind farms in Europe are 19.8 (6.2–46.9) MW/km² and 6.64 (2.3–8.2) W/m², respectively; of onshore wind farms outside of Europe are similarly 20.5 (16.5–48) MW/km² and 6.84 (4.81–11.2) W/m², respectively; and of offshore wind farms in Europe are 7.2 (3.3–20.2) MW/km² and 2.94 (1.15–6.32) W/m², respectively. The mean capacity factors in each case are thus 33.5%, 33.4%, and 40.8%, respectively. These results indicate substantially higher installed and output power densities than previously reported, based simply on different definitions of land area, with no impact on capacity factor. Thus, existing wind turbines may extract more wind power over less land or water than previously thought.
In recent years, owing to the long-span adverse impact of utilizing petrochemicals and economic crises, wind energy has stood-up as a cost-effective source of energy. It endorsed as having the emission-free ability, green and is also subsidies by states support and credits benefits for taxes. It has several positive impacts, such as (i) environmental (ii) social (iii) economic and (iv) cultural impacts. To make the wind farms acceptable to the public, a major hurdle that must be overcome, as apart from withstanding both the cost pressures. People are now more aware of the risks associated with climate change; the problem of wind turbines is particularly related to deforestation/land use and migration route. Such challenges need to be properly addressed to ensure technology development to provide ongoing political and public support. In this paper, the development of wind energy atlas is summarized with particular reference to its positive impacts (clean and green) and negative impacts, namely noise, imagery, deforestation, and land erosion. Practical solutions in wind farms are also discussed with suitable examples. The given points need to be included in the data that harmonizes wind energy with wildlife conservation, such as (i) engineers/programmers use turbines developed to allow central collisions; (ii) decisions and other relevant aspects, deadlines, Including a comparison of bird mortality before and after construction; (iii) using improved computational dynamics and other advanced technologies to further evaluate the impact of turbine noise on the location of predators in the wild to help minimize the impact of this clean and green energy.
A novel method was developed to detect the optimal onshore wind farm layout driven by the characteristics of all commercially-available wind turbines. A huge number of turbine combinations (577) was processed, resulting in 22,721 generated layouts. Various assumptions and constraints were considered, mostly derived from the literature, including site features, wind conditions, and layout design. For the latter, an irregularly staggered turbine array configuration was assumed. Wake effects were simulated through the Jensen’s model, while a typical turbine thrust coefficient curve as a function of wind speed was originally developed. A detailed cost model was used, with levelized cost of energy selected as primary and capacity factor as secondary objective function. The self-organizing maps were used to address a thorough analysis, proving to be a powerful means to straightforwardly achieve a comprehensive pattern of wind farm layout optimization.
In general, the two optimization functions basically match, while for higher wind potential sites, increasing capacity factor did not necessarily result in decreasing levelized cost of energy. The latter may be minimised by reducing the total number of turbines or the overall wind farm capacity, as well as maximising rotor diameters or minimising rated wind speeds; increasing rated power or hub height is only beneficial for mid-potential sites. The mere maximisation of wind farm energy production is a misleading target, as corresponding to mid-to-high values of levelized cost of energy. In contrast to previous studies, the use of turbines with different rated power, rotor diameter or hub height should be avoided.
This paper explores the technical and economic characteristics of an accelerated energy transition to 2050, using new datasets for renewable energy. The analysis indicates that energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are the core elements of that transition, and their synergies are likewise important. Favourable economics,
ubiquitous resources, scalable technology, and significant socio-economic benefits underpin such a transition. Renewable energy can supply two-thirds of the total global energy demand, and contribute to the bulk of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction that is needed between now and 2050 for limiting average global surface temperature increase below 2 °C. Enabling policy and regulatory frameworks will need to be adjusted to mobilise the six-fold acceleration of renewables growth that is needed, with the highest growth estimated for wind and solar PV technologies, complemented by a high level of energy efficiency. Still, to ensure the eventual elimination of carbon dioxide emissions will require new technology and innovation, notably for the transport and manufacturing sectors, which remain largely ignored in the international debate. More attention is needed
for emerging infrastructure issues such as charging infrastructure and other sector coupling implications.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2019.01.006
Land desertification is recognized as a major threat to soil resources in arid, semi-arid Mediterranean areas. The
use of widely applicable methodologies can facilitate the identification of land desertification risk spatio-temporal
trends, which allows transnational comparison and support the development of soil management practices
and policies, protecting the valuable soil resources. The aim of this study is to improve and use the
Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) MEDALUS methodology, in order to provide a qualitative assessment for
desertification risk trends in Greece, within the last 45 years. The Management, Vegetation, Soil and Climate
quality indices (MQI, VQI, SQI, CQI) and the sub-sequent Environmental Sensitive Areas Index (ESAI) have been
modeled for three periods in the entire Greek territory. The four quality indices are divided in two main categories,
based on data availability and inherent characteristics, such as the pace of change during the studied
period. Particular emphasis is given to the assessment of MQI, by integrating criteria which derived from national
policies and the elaboration of national statistical data. The results show about 9% increase of the areas
characterized as Critical to land desertification risk, while Fragile, Potentially affected and Non-affected areas
decrease by 3.7%, 3.6%, 2.5% respectively. The applied approach for MQI can reveal areas where particular
attention to management practices is required and improves the performance of the overall desertification risk
index.
Land degradation is considered to be a major environmental problem of the European continent, especially in the Mediterranean region. This study aims to deliver new results in terms of the actual land sensitivity to degradation in the southern and central southeastern areas of Europe, by improving the results of the DISMED (Desertification Information System for the Mediterranean) project, initiated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) after 2000. The methodology is based on updating the SDI (Sensitivity Desertification Index), which was obtained in the DISMED project based on three biophysical parameters, i.e. Climate Quality Index (CQI), Soil Quality Index and Vegetation Quality Index. This approach proposes to improve the SDI by replacing the initial CQI with a new one based on revised climate aridity data, superior to what was initially used in terms of spatial, temporal and methodological accuracy. Given the fact that land aridity expansion was found to be 70% greater than previously estimated, results showed there are lands with high and very high sensitivity to degradation that total > 400,000 km² (~ 25% of the total area of ~ 1.7 mil km²), ~ 75% more (~ 177,000 km²) than the initial DISMED data. Nationally, while Spain is the most severely threatened (~ 240,000 km² of highly/very highly susceptible lands to degradation, 49% of the total country area) there are also major concerns for Greece (~ 42,000 km², 34%), Bulgaria (~ 32,000 km², 29%), Italy (~ 28,000 km², 10%), Romania (~ 27,000 km², 11%) and Portugal (~ 24,000 km², 28%). This situation is alarming due to the magnitude of changes resulting from the replacement of even a single dataset – climate data –, which are however the most dynamic and, as a result, the most important to consider for improving the DISMED model. Against the background of the findings prompted by this update based on the original scheme of DISMED method, we call on the EEA to reconsider the current status of lands that are critically threatened by degradation/desertification in Europe, and to provide updated information to policymakers (like European Commission or United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) in order to prioritize the appropriate policies for combating/mitigating the negative effects of this process.
Renewable Portfolio Standards are U.S. state-level policies that encourage renewable energy development to meet a proportion of electricity demand. These policies, along with state and federal incentives and private sector demand, have motivated interest in renewable energy capacity, which is a function of available land. As global climate change has been driven by the combination of fossil fuel combustion and land cover change, renewable energy development is best achieved through sustainable land use practices. One option is to site renewable energy installations on land that has been contaminated or degraded. This analysis looks at the degree to which renewable energy demand created by state renewable portfolio standards in the United States could be met by contaminated or formerly contaminated sites. Results suggest that land resources are more than sufficient to meet current and possibly future RPS-generated demand in three out of four regions.