Integrating renewable and non-renewable energy development with landscape service trade-offs

Kienast Felix, WSL, Swiss Federal Research Institute, felix.kienast@wsl.ch

Thomas C. Edwards, Jagiellonian University, IUS Geological Survey / Utah State University, t.edwards@usu.edu

Summary

Landscape ecology provides a conceptual framework for modeling potential future landscapes affected by energy development. A number of modeling approaches have been developed to assist planning. They include traditional Master plans, Actor-Based-Modeling environments linked with a GIS, landscape optimization tools such as MARXAN, or highly sophisticated visual labs. Our proposed symposium will attract presenters from a variety of modeling fields mentioned above, focusing on energy landscapes, where trade-offs have to be found between landscape aesthetics and sustainable energy production in rapidly developing urban, peri-urban, and natural environments. 

Description

The landscape approach (e.g. Reed et al. 2016) is a clear departure from the win-win rhetoric in landscape planning, providing a conceptual framework that can be used to optimize trade-offs among competing landscape values when planning future landscapes. One of the more pressing issues in landscape futures is renewable and non-renewable energy development, and how such development affects landscape aesthetics and proper ecological functioning. These impacts are often evaluated inside modeling exercises that compare different landscape configurations and their associated trade-offs (Dale et al., 2016; Egli et al., 2017; Kienast et al., 2017). A number of modeling approaches have been developed to assess potential land-use trajectories and trade-offs stemming from different landscape demands of society and its economies. They include traditional Master plans, Actor-Based-Modeling environments linked with a GIS, landscape optimization tools such as MARXAN, or highly sophisticated visual labs. These tools of landscape planning, and ultimately negotiation, can be used in participatory, top-down, self-organized planning.

Our proposed symposium will attract presenters from a variety of modeling fields mentioned above, focusing specifically on energy landscapes, where trade-offs have to be found between landscape aesthetics and sustainable energy production in rapidly developing urban, peri-urban, and natural environments.

We will solicit presentations analyzing energy development and view-sheds and associated no-sheds, and how these affect landscape aesthetics, cumulative impacts exploring potential effects of energy extraction infrastructure on landscapes, as well as those incorporating desires for biofuels development. Studies examining societal perspectives regarding energy development and its incorporation into landscapes would particularly welcome. We also request an associated poster session to augment the oral presentations. We consider the poster presentation an ideal venue for young scientists who are actively engaged in landscape planning and trade-off analysis associated with energy development. Ideally, the poster grouping would follow after the oral presentations, thereby allowing us to highlight the posters and direct attendees to the posters during the conference.

What can participants expect to learn?

Participants will be exposed to a broad overview of how renewable and non-renewable energy extraction desires can affect landscape configurations and ecological functioning.  Specific modeling tools used to evaluate trade-offs in energy development, land use and associated landscape services, will be highlighted. We will select presentations that show a clear transdisciplinary aim. This will be attractive for both academics and practice-oriented conference participants

Impact 

Once the list of presenters, both oral and posters, is finalized we will engage all participants to determine if sufficient interest exists in a special publication series targeted at a mainstream journal.  Depending on interest, there exists potential to create a working group within IALE International for further exploration of this topic.  As a topic, it cuts across virtually all continents and all IALE chapters.