How do multiple tidal energy sites interact and do any ecological impacts worsen?

潮汐能是一种自然资源，可以为英国的基础设施带来重大好处，因为它正在努力实现其低碳目标。英国海岸的地貌特征放大了可用的潮汐能源资源，为世界各地提供了一些最显著的可持续能源。然而，对站点潮汐资源大小的估计取决于假设和与其他潮汐能站点的相互作用。本项目将探索与水动力预测和数据输入相关的不确定性，为将这种不确定性扩展到预期的生态影响(包括负面和正面影响)提供了一条途径。这些影响将通过开发和应用新的计算方法进行调查和量化，包括通过“机器学习”。该项目将建立在新的建模框架(THEIS、https://thetisproject.org/))的最新发展的基础上，这些框架源于环境科学研究委员会理事会项目的最新成果，重点是将水动力学与生态模型相结合。该项目将把多个拟议的潮汐能场地和类型(溪流、拦河坝、泻湖)连接在一起，以评估优化的环境影响和能源开采。

Tidal energy is a natural resource that can deliver major benefits to the UK infrastructure as it strives to achieve its low-carbon goals. The UK coast offers geomorphological characteristics that amplify the available tidal energy resources, presenting sites with some of the most pronounced sustainable energy sources worldwide. However, estimates for the size of the tidal stream resource at sites depends on assumptions and interactions with other tidal energy sites.This project will explore the uncertainty associated with hydrodynamic predictions and data inputs providing a route to extend this uncertainty to the ecological impacts expected (both negative and positive). These impacts will be investigated and quantified through the development and application of novel computational methods, including via "machine learning". The project will build on the recent development of novel modelling frameworks (Thetis, https://thetisproject.org/) that stem from recent outputs by EPSRC council projects, focusing on blending hydrodynamics with ecological models. The project will link together multiple proposed tidal energy sites and types (stream, barrages, lagoons) to assess optimised environmental impact and energy extraction.