Abstract
To arrive at a sustainable future we need offshore renewables to succeed, and to do so we need to work together. There have been ecological showstoppers in the past and there will be again in the future unless we can co-design devices, array layouts and site locations of multiple very large-scale developments such that cumulative ecological effects can be assessed and conflicts with ecological laws, local communities and fishing industries be minimized. In order to effectively spatially manage our marine habitats, weigh-up ecological trade-offs and avoid/adapt to the worst effects of climate change, we need all those involved to understand, at some degree of detail, how our marine ecosystems function such that impact mitigation efforts can start at the design stage of devices and developments. This paper outlines a straightforward way to convey the most important environmental issues that are concerning renewables developments, as well as in the context of climate change, and at the scales of individuals and ecosystems. It covers a range of suggestions for the design of data collection, analysis and modelling frameworks to deal with these concerns and finishes with suggestions for potential avenues for future collaboration between ecological and engineering sciences.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 37-43 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | International Marine Energy Journal (IMEJ) |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 31 May 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2022 |
Event | 14th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, EWTEC 2021 - Virtual, Online Duration: 5 Sept 2021 → 9 Sept 2021 |
Bibliographical note
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTI want to thank the wonderful range of PhDs, academic, industry and government colleagues whose hard work, scientific talent and insights and willingness to collaborate and work across disciplines in multiple projects has progressed this important field of study.
This work was supported by the work was supported by Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Hub, funded by EPSRC (EP/S000747/1). There is also material supplied by work funded by NERC and Defra (NE/J004308/1 and NE/J004340/1)
Keywords
- Cumulative effects
- Ecological Trade-offs
- Modelling Frameworks
- Strategic Environmental Assessments