Discussion
The location criteria for basic wind farming have been developed for the UK using information from policies, criteria and factors that are used by relevant public and private sector bodies as well as the literature. The criteria were implemented in Lancashire by utilizing of index overlay modules and distance operations within a grid based GIS (IDRISI). A mathematical combination of 14 different map layers to produce a suitability map for the study area was involved. Two methods were used to combine the 14 layers.
- Consider all the constraint layers as equally important and giving them equal weight.
- Obtain a suitability map by grouping the constraint layers and grading these group as per the perceived importance and allocating weights based on the the comparison of the importance of the two layers.
The outputs were classified form class 0(ideal locations) to class 10 (unsuitable locations). Both methods give spatial outcomes on the outcomes of both methods which strongly reflect the influence of the roads buffer and urban areas buffer.
The second method slightly favors the most suitable areas by increasing their area in the study area which allows the user to introduce varying degrees of importance in each map. This approach gives the user the freedom to use their expertise in making informed decisions. When locating wind farm sites, additional information such as public satisfaction can be formatted and integrated into the GIS.
By using the GIS to locate the most suitable site among the ideal sites from the constraint map, the investigation can be taken a step further by individually assessing their suitability. The GIS could act as a database for the situational data collected for each potential site.
This investigation will use data from different sources with different sources of accuracy when it comes to accuracy of the outcomes. Errors from one layer will have propagated through the analysis, combined with other errors from other layers, which may cause inaccuracies in the output map.
The GIS is well suited for the location of wind farms for the following reasons:
- It can manage and analyze the volumes of the diversity of the multidisciplinary data required by the application
- It can be used for “modeling impacts” of proposed and operational sites and recommend modifications to minimize them.
- Because if its “what if” performance functionality, it can be used to evaluate the effects of different policies of planning and select the most suitable or identify the optimum wind farm site among am number of suitable potential sites.
The GIS has great potential in this field because all the clear indications that the demand for wind farms in the UK and EU is on the increase.
