Development of a Geographic Information System-Based Decision Support Tool for Evaluating Windfarm Sitings in Great Lakes Aquatic Habitats

Wehrly, Kevin E.¹  Rutherford, Edward S.²  Wang, Lizhu³ 

[1] Michigan Dept. Natural Resources and Environment, Lansing, MI (United States);Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab., Ann Harbor, MI (United States);Michigan Dept. Natural Resources and Environmen

关键词: offshore wind;    decision support;    Great Lakes;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1303492
RP-ID  :  DE--10EE0003537
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1303492

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

As an outcome of our research project, we developed software and data for the Lakebed Alteration Decision Support Tool (LADST), a web-based decision support program to assist resource managers in making siting decisions for offshore wind farms (as well as other lakebed-altering projects) in the United States' waters of the Great Lakes. Users of the LADST can create their own offshore wind farm suitability maps, based upon suitability criteria of their own choosing by visiting a public web site. The LADST can be used to represent the different priorities or values of different Great Lakes stakeholders for wind farm siting, as well as the different suitability requirements of wind farms (or different types of development projects) in a single suitability analysis system. The LADST makes this type of customized suitability analysis easily accessible to users who have no specialized software or experience with geographic information systems (GIS). It also may increase the transparency of the siting and permitting process for offshore wind farms, as it makes the suitability analysis equally accessible to resource managers, wind farm developers, and concerned citizens.