Using environmental impact assessment and post-construction monitoring data to inform wind energy developments
Using environmental impact assessment and post-construction monitoring data to inform wind energy developments
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DOI：
10.1890/es14-00331.1
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发表时间：
2015-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
McGowan, Philip J. K.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zwart, Mieke C.;Robson, Peter;McGowan, Philip J. K.
定期收集生态数据用于环境影响评估 (EIA) 和同意后的规划要求，以评估开发对野生动物的潜在负面影响。此类数据几乎总是从单个站点获得，并且由于复制不足，这通常会阻碍稳健的统计分析。在这里，我们整合了环境影响评估期间收集的数据和多个地点的施工后监测数据，以研究风能开发对黑松鸡分布和丰度的影响。我们发现，在这七个地点建造风力涡轮机对 lekking 黑松鸡的丰度没有明显影响，但距离最近的规划风力涡轮机 500 m 范围内的 lekking 黑松鸡在施工后局部移动（施工前的中位距离为 250 m，施工后为 803 m）。对于距离风力涡轮机超过 500 m 的区域，没有观察到这种效应。尽管本研究中未进行检验，但我们报告的黑松鸡局部运动可能有多种原因，无论是单独的还是组合的。其中包括风能开发的运营、游客量、场地内部和周围土地管理的变化，以及旨在吸引黑松鸡到远离风能开发的特定区域的栖息地增强措施。我们证明，环境影响评估和多个项目的施工后调查定期收集的生态数据可以结合起来，提供强大的生态证据基础，为开发决策提供信息。我们建议监管机构维护易于访问的数据存储库，以便开发强大的生态证据基础，以指导各种不同野生动物的规划决策。
Ecological data are routinely collected for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and post-consent planning requirements to assess potential negative impacts of developments on wildlife. Such data are almost always obtained from a single site and this often prohibits robust statistical analysis due to insufficient replication. Here, we integrate data collected during EIAs and post-construction monitoring from multiple sites to study the impact of wind energy developments on the distribution and abundance of black grouse. We show that the construction of wind turbines at these seven sites had no detectable effect on the abundance of lekking black grouse, but that leks within 500 m of the nearest planned wind turbine moved locally after construction (median distance before construction was 250 m and after was 803 m). This effect was not observed for leks greater than 500 m from a wind turbine. Although not examined within this study, there are several reasons which, individually or in combination, could underlie the localized movement of black grouse we report. These include the operation of the wind energy development, volume of visitors, changes in land management both within and surrounding the site, and habitat enhancement measures designed to attract black grouse to specific areas away from the wind energy development. We demonstrate that ecological data routinely collected by EIAs and post-construction surveys from multiple projects can be combined to provide a robust ecological evidence base on which to inform development decisions. We recommend that easily-accessible data repositories be maintained by regulatory authorities to enable the development of a robust ecological evidence base to guide planning decisions across a wide range of different wildlife.