EnergyScapes and Ecosystem Services

最近，可再生能源受到媒体和公众的广泛关注，因为可再生能源对环境的好处，包括气候变化、替代进口能源的潜力、对粮食生产的可能影响以及与风力涡轮机位置有关的美学问题。陆基可再生能源的潜在来源包括来自森林的生物能源、可耕地作物、能源作物和废物、太阳能加热和发电、水力发电、地热和风能。这种能源的空间组织，连同能源需求，能源基础设施和特定景观内的其他能源，可以被称为“能源景观”。“生态系统服务”是一个统称，描述我们从土地及其相关生态系统中获得的各种服务。它们包括提供食物、纤维和燃料，调节营养、供水和水质，创造娱乐和教育机会，维护生物多样性，以及建造和维护我们的支持性基础设施的空间。开发和利用陆上可再生能源对这些服务既有消极影响，也有积极影响。积极方面可能包括生物质作物增加生物多样性;消极方面可能包括河流流量减少和生物质公路运输增加。这个为期一年的研究项目旨在通过试点研究确定如何系统地了解“能源景观”和“生态系统服务”可以帮助指导陆基可再生能源的部署。对于试点研究，我们选择了贝德福德郡的马斯顿谷，这是大乌塞河的一个子流域，包含农业，林业和城市土地的混合。它是一个社区森林的所在地，当地人对可再生能源很感兴趣。该项目将与国家和地方利益相关者团体合作，确定研究区域内可再生能源的主要来源以及可能受到陆上可再生能源开发影响的主要生态系统服务。然后，该项目将利用空间数据、地理信息系统和现有模型，对研究区的EnergyScape和主要生态系统服务进行空间描述。由于某些模型比其他模型更弱，我们将使用计算中使用的“即插即用”框架，以便新的和改进的模型可以在可用时引入。同样，这一方法将允许在新的数据来源出现时将其纳入。从基线描述开始，我们将调查与部署不同的陆基可再生能源组合相关的收益和损失。由于可再生能源相对于能源需求具有不同的空间和时间特征，因此产出不会简单地相加。同样，能源生产与不同的生态系统服务之间以及生态系统服务之间将存在复杂的相互作用。有些相互作用将是对立的（例如太阳能与供暖需求;粮食与生物燃料），而其他相互作用可能是互补的（例如共享设施;生物燃料与生物多样性）。通过使用适当的可视化工具，我们希望可以向利益相关者群体解释关键的交互，然后他们可以使用这些信息为未来的决策提供信息。我们打算在这项研究中开发的方法，这将是有限的可再生能源和生态系统的一个特定区域，可以应用到其他地区，并在未来的研究项目在一个国家的空间尺度。为了验证我们方法的学术效果，我们将提交论文进行同行评审，寻求在高影响力的科学期刊上发表。

Renewable energy has recently received considerable media and public attention because of perceived benefits to the environment, including climate change, the potential to replace imported sources of energy, the possible impact on food production, and aesthetic issues related to the location of wind turbines. Potential sources of land-based renewable energy include bioenergy from forests, arable crops, energy crops and waste, solar heating and electricity, hydroelectricity, ground-source heat, and wind-energy. The spatial organisation of such energy sources, together with energy demand, energy infrastructure and other energy-sources within a particular landscape can be termed the 'EnergyScape'. 'Ecosystem Services' is a collective term to describe the various services we obtain from land and its associated ecosystems. They include the provision of food, fibre and fuel, the regulation of nutrients, water supply and water quality, the creation of opportunities for recreation and education, the maintenance of biodiversity, and the space to build and maintain our supporting infrastructure. The development and use of land-based renewable energy resources will have both negative and positive impacts on these services. Positive aspects may include increased biodiversity from biomass crops; negative aspects may include reduced river flows and increased road transport of biomass. This one-year research project aims to determine, through a pilot study, how a systematic understanding of the 'EnergyScape' and 'Ecosystem Services' could help guide the deployment of land-based renewables. For the pilot study we have selected Marston Vale in Bedfordshire which is a sub-catchment of the Great Ouse river, and contains a mix of agricultural, forestry and urban land. It is the site of a community forest and there is local interest in renewable energy. Working with national and local stakeholder groups, the project will identify the key sources of renewable energy within the study area and the key ecosystem services likely to be affected by the development of land-based renewables. Using spatial data, geographical information systems and existing models, the project will then develop a spatial description of the EnergyScape and the key ecosystem services for the study area. Because some models are weaker than others, we will use a 'Plug and Play' framework, as used in computing, so that new and improved models can be introduced as they become available. Similarly, the approach will allow new data sources to be included as they become available. Starting from the base-line description, we will then investigate the benefits and losses associated with the deployment of different combinations of land based renewables. Because renewable energy sources have different spatial and temporal characteristics relative to the demand for energy, the outputs will not be simply additive. Similarly, there will be complex interactions between energy generation and different ecosystem services, and amongst the ecosystem services. Some interactions will be antagonistic (e.g. solar power v demand for heating; food v biofuel) whereas others may be complementary (e.g. sharing of facilities; biofuel v biodiversity). By using appropriate visualisation tools, we hope that the key interactions can be explained to stakeholder groups, who can then use the information to inform future decisions. We intend that the approach developed in this research, which will be limited to the renewables and ecosystems of a specific area, can be applied to other regions and at a national spatial scale in future research projects. To validate the academic efficacy of our approach, we will submit papers for peer review, seeking to get them published in high-impact scientific journals.