Spatial analyses of emerging and fading wind energy landscapes in Denmark

The development of wind energy in Denmark goes back 30 years, during which the technology was commercialised, up scaled and a series of planning systems were developed. After the millennium, the impact on landscapes increased, the planning regime failed and economic conditions were worsened with the removal of the fixed feed in tariff. The earlier forerunner country is left in the lee of the internationally boosting wind energy business. From a land use policy view it is interesting to analyse how this has happened and what impact the planning policy has had on the landscape effect of wind energy. In order to analyse the impact of wind turbine development through times and on the population of a region, the present paper analyses by means of geographical information systems and in time steps. The spatial relations between population, landscapes and the wind turbine development from 1982 to 2007 were modelled for the Northern Jutland region by means of proximity, density and visibility analyses. Results indicate that development was not continuous and impact on landscape and population was closely related to technology development. The paper concludes on the use of these methods and on the effectiveness of planning regimes.     

Wind power,landscape and strategic,spatial planning—The construction of ‘acceptable locations’ in Wales

A number of analysts have argued that decisions about renewable energy technologies and targets need to be reconciled with the social and environmental contexts in which those technologies are adopted. However, an unresolved issue is how the contextually-embedded qualities of landscape might be represented at the national level, alongside other energy policy considerations like resource availability, economic efficiency and technical feasibility. To explore the dilemmas of this enterprise, this work examines the efforts of the Welsh Assembly Government to develop a spatial planning framework for wind energy. The work examines how particular landscapes became identified as ‘acceptable locations’ for wind farms, and the consequences. Four sets of findings are discussed: the selectivity with which landscape qualities enter strategic planning rationalities, favouring qualities that are formally demarcated and measurable ‘at a distance’; the tendency of the identified strategic search areas for wind to reinforce the degraded status of afforested upland areas; the extent to which the planning framework has rendered certain environmental qualities malleable; and the way that drawing boundaries around acceptable locations for large-scale wind energy development may restrict the scope for future reflexivity in energy policy.     

Social metabolism,landscape change and land-use planning in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region

The present work explores the synergies between socio-metabolic energy use and landscape patterns, starting from the hypothesis that there is a complex and changing relationship between the efficiency in both the societal use of energy, and land-use, and the ecosystem functioning of the whole land matrix of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR). It first compares changes in the social metabolism (i.e. the total energy or material throughput of the economy) and in landscape structure and function from 1850 to the present in three municipalities of the Vallès county (N of the BMR), as a first attempt to establish a link between the societal uses of land and energy together with their impact on landscape patterns. Secondly, the study explores the role of natural versus rural landscapes on the maintaining of basic functional properties such as connectivity in the whole BMR. We base our analyses on parametric methodologies that describe both structural and functional properties of landscapes, aimed at assessing the landscape efficiency of both energy-use and land-use planning. The first comparison reveals that the simultaneous loss of energy efficiency and land-use efficiency from the mid-19th century to present can be tracked by changes in the functional landscape structure. The second study shows the importance of the traditional rural landscapes in maintaining the ecological quality of non-built-up land. In consequence, the organized complexity of the land system necessary to host biodiversity and basic ecological processes cannot be guaranteed if the agro-forestry mosaic is not taken into account, together with the network of protected areas.     

Using IT approaches to promote public participation in renewable energy planning: Prospects and challenges

In response to recent policy initiatives and UK and European legislation there is increasing focus on alternative methodologies and procedures to encourage public participation in environmental planning. This paper is concerned with outlining those methodologies that involve the use of IT methods in enabling a possible consensus to be reached between participatory groups on decisions that may effect their local environment. Specifically, we focus on integrated approaches that involve the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques in facilitating public participation using the case study of the planning of wind farms. The introduction of renewable energy technologies can be a particularly contentious issue in some areas of the UK and we draw on a review of the use of such software tools in order to highlight their application within a decision support system framework. One area where there has been less input from potentially affected local communities or stakeholders relates to the use of computer-generated visualisations in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. We describe future research challenges facing those charged with encouraging participation in the siting of such facilities before re-iterating the policy relevance of this research given the UK governments’ stated commitment to the incorporation of public input into the decision-making process.     

国有林场改革与发展问题思考

介绍了国有林场的基本情况,国有林场职工参加社会最低生活保障的情况以及各地落实最低生活保障制度的好的经验和做法,指出国有林场发展存在着职工生活比较贫困、林区民生问题比较突出等主要问题,提出了明确林场定位、完善社保体系、加强基础设施建设、剥离社会职能等政策建议。     

An integrated approach for ex-ante evaluation of public policies for sustainable agriculture at landscape level

An integrated methodological framework for ex-ante evaluation and planning of public policies for sustainable agriculture at agro-landscape level is proposed. The components of the framework are to: (1) determine the private, i.e. farmers’, and public benefits associated to agro-landscapes, consisting of an agricultural land-use system, according to its performance for several market and non-market functions. Market forces determine the market benefits and preferences of society the non-market benefits; (2) explore and select potential sustainable agro-landscapes based on the private and public benefits associated with possible land-use alternatives; (3) define efficient public policy mechanisms for improving social net benefit of agro-landscapes.The framework is illustrated with a case study in a small dairy farming dominated agro-landscape in The Netherlands, with gross margin, landscape quality, nature value and environmental health as the analysed ecosystem functions. Alternative landscapes consisting of hedgerow configurations and grassland management practices were explored, yielding a set of alternatives representing the solution space in terms of change in private and public benefits. Policy mechanisms were defined to move from the current to a desired landscape based on changes in social net benefits. Moreover, the necessity of a modification in the current agri-environmental support was analysed for each landscape. The analysis considered all farmers in the agro-landscape jointly. The results for the case study showed potential prototypes of landscapes and their performance compared to the current landscape. Extension was the most efficient policy mechanism to promote the change to the socially optimum landscape alternative.     

Is land cover an important asset for addressing the subjective landscape dimensions?

This paper explores which physical landscape components relate to subjective landscape dimensions. The ways in which people describe their surrounding cultural landscape was analyzed through an assessment of their representations of it. A special focus was placed on assessing the role of land cover as a means to communicate landscape meanings regarding a specific geographical region. The methodological framework was built on the basis of a questionnaire survey, multivariate statistical analysis and mapping approaches. This research shows that there is a set of physical landscape components that relate to subjective landscape dimensions which can be disclosed through the assessment of social representations. Enhancing and safeguarding those physical landscape components associated with the subjective landscape dimensions are important aspects in both framing and targeting land cover/use policies and decision making. Results also suggest that land cover can be understood as an important asset for describing landscapes as more than 30% of respondents referred to it when asked to represent the case study region of Alentejo in southern Portugal. This might mean that in addition to objective ecological and biological functions, land cover is also an important asset for evaluating subjective landscape dimensions in line with place attachment and landscape identity. Finally, the ways in which the empirical material gathered here can be used to inform policy and planning are explored.     

Wind power planning,landscapes and publics

Renewable energy is currently undergoing a renaissance. Efforts to achieve national targets that have announced forward invariably impact on the appearance of the physical landscape, and raise issues of spatial planning. Proponents of renewable energy—sometimes, planners themselves—have often taken the support of environmental NGOs and the wider public for granted, as they perceive renewable energy facilities to be ‘clean’, ‘green’ and a continuation of traditional technologies such as wind and water mills. But whilst large sections of the population in developed countries are indeed in principle in favour of renewables, in practice proposed facilities have often given rise to considerable public concerns.