A GIS modelling framework to evaluate marine spatial planning scenarios: Co-location of offshore wind farms and aquaculture in the German EEZ

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe concept of co-location of marine areas receives an increased significance in the light of sustainable development in the already heavily used offshore marine realm. Within this study, different spatial colocation scenarios for the coupling of offshore aquacultures and wind farms are evaluated in order to support efficient and sustainable marine spatial management strategies. A Geographic Information System (GIS) and multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) techniques were combined to index suitable co-sites in the German exclusive economic zone of the North Sea. The MCE was based on criteria such as temperature, salinity or oxygen. In total, 13 possible aquaculture candidates (seaweed, bivalves, fish and crustaceans) were selected for the scenario configuration. The GIS modelling framework proved to be powerful in defining potential co-location sites. The aquaculture candidate oarweed (Laminaria digitata) revealed the highest suitability scores at 10-20 m depth from April to June, followed by haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) at 20-30 m depth and dulse (Palmaria palmata) and Sea belt (Saccharina latissima) at 0-10 m depth between April and June. In summary, results showed several wind farms were de facto suitable sites for aquaculture since they exhibited high suitability scores for Integrated MultiTrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems combining fish species, bivalves and seaweeds. The present results illustrate how synergies may be realised between competing needs of both offshore wind energy and offshore IMTA in the German EEZ of the North Sea. This might offer guidance to stakeholders and assist decision-makers in determining the most suitable sites for pilot projects using IMTA techniques.

The feasibility of offshore aquaculture and its potential for multi-use in the North Sea

“…They conclude that the economic and technological advancements are not considered well enough to overcome the biological boundaries for growth and production of fish in the Dutch North Sea. This is contradictive to Gimpel et al (2015) who concluded that integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) production with haddock, seaweed and bivalves has potential for offshore production in the German North Sea. The reason for exclusion of haddock by Reijs et al (2008) was based on the low optimal temperatures for haddock (4-10°C; Fishbase) and the criteria that optimal temperature should be[12°C in order to deal with summer conditions.…”

“…Biological and technical cultivation seems feasible for a wider range of species such as the Pacific oyster, the flat oyster and scallops. However, the economic projections for these species are yet uncertain (Gimpel et al 2015;Pogoda et al 2011;Reijs et al 2008). The seaweed industry in the Netherlands is in its infancy.…”

“…It was concluded that some combinations are not feasible because economic and/or safety risks are too high. Most potential was identified for combinations of aquaculture with wind parks, certain types of fishery and nature conservation; especially, the potential for the combination with wind parks is considered as worthy to be explored Benassai et al 2014;Lagerveld et al 2014;Gimpel et al 2015). The benefits of combining these activities are expected from co-use of space, improvement of the company's corporate social responsibility (Lagerveld et al 2014), and combined operations and management (O&M) may lead to a reduction in costs.…”

Can Seaweed Farming Play a Role in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation?

“…Moreover, the scope for expansion of seaweed aquaculture beyond the currently suitable areas may be facilitated in the future by developments in offshore aquaculture, allowing cultivation (e.g., Sulaiman et al, 2015) and seaweed biorefining (Fernand et al, in press) in offshore farms (Lehahn et al, 2016). Current marine spatial models already propose solutions to competing demands for suitable space, such as the co-location of offshore wind farms and seaweed aquaculture (Gimpel et al, 2015).…”

Mapping frequent spatio-temporal wind profile patterns using multi-dimensional sequential pattern mining

“…The global growth of wind energy production will continue in the future because the use of this renewable source of energy is actively promoted by various institutions and associations (EWEA 2014). However, there are three main contentious issues associated with the development of wind energy: (1) discovering the trend of wind patterns (Tchinda et al 2000;Tchinda and Kaptouom 2003), (2) minimizing negative environmental impact by developing appropriate wind farm site selection criteria (Hwang et al 2011;Kaldellis et al 2013;Gimpel et al 2015;Latinopoulos and Kechagia 2015) and (3) identifying the environment impact of wind farms (Dai et al 2015).…”