Lessons Learned on Assessing Environmental Impacts of OWFs

Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in cooperation with Marine Scotland Science and Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences of University of Aberdeen worked on recent publication reviewing the assessments carried out for offshore wind farms.

The article describes the lessons learned from recent experiences in the European offshore wind industry and makes recommendations for future monitoring and assessments in this internationally growing industry. It focuses mostly on assessments relating to marine mammals and seabirds.

The four key lessons learned that are discussed in the paper are:

  1. Identifying the area over which biological effects may occur to inform baseline data collection and determining the connectivity between key populations and proposed wind energy sites,
  2. The need to put impacts into a population level context to determine whether they are biologically significant,
  3. Measuring responses to wind farm construction and operation to determine disturbance effects and avoidance responses, and
  4. Learn from other industries to inform risk assessments and the effectiveness of mitigation measures.

To read the full article, please visit the following link.

[mappress]
Offshore WIND Staff; Image: Helen Bailey/University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science