GIS-based MCDA for decision support : a framework for wind farm siting in Iceland
(2017) In Master Thesis in Geographical Information Science GISM01 20161Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- Abstract
- Wind power development in Iceland is still on early stages where there are no wind farms and only a few wind turbines up and running in the whole country. However, the fast growing development of wind power that has been taking place in Europe and around the world has not gone unseen in Iceland. The interest in wind power is growing rapidly and the preparation of the development of the first wind farm in Iceland has already started.
Even though producing energy by using wind is by far a better choice than using nonrenewable energy sources, wind power development has some environmental impacts that needs to be addressed. By including environmental issues in the site selection process of wind power developments the environmental impact of... (More) - Wind power development in Iceland is still on early stages where there are no wind farms and only a few wind turbines up and running in the whole country. However, the fast growing development of wind power that has been taking place in Europe and around the world has not gone unseen in Iceland. The interest in wind power is growing rapidly and the preparation of the development of the first wind farm in Iceland has already started.
Even though producing energy by using wind is by far a better choice than using nonrenewable energy sources, wind power development has some environmental impacts that needs to be addressed. By including environmental issues in the site selection process of wind power developments the environmental impact of the developments can be minimized.
During the site selection of wind farms, many different variables need to be taken into consideration, not only criteria that determine the viability of wind farms such as wind speed but also environmental and socio-economic issues that the wind power development confers.
This thesis presents a framework for site selection of wind farms in Iceland that accounts for possible environmental issues to be addressed in the first steps of the wind power development, in the site selection process itself. The proposed framework is based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). It incorporates the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), sensitivity analysis as well as various spatial analysis.
A case study was conducted where the methodological framework was used to estimate 2 different areas of study. The results of the case study indicated that the method can serve as a beneficial decision support tool that provides the decision maker with series of suitability maps and statistics to support the optimal siting of wind farms. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- Modern life is highly dependent on electrical energy and energy consumption over the world is rapidly increasing. Most of all electric power in the world is generated by burning fossil fuel such as coal, oil or natural gases. Energy production based on burning fossil fuel has considerable negative impact on the environment and is one of the major cause of air pollution. The fast growing demand for electrical energy and the negative impact that the most common electrical power generation methods produce, increases the demand for renewable energy sources around the world.
Wind power is an energy source that many countries have been focusing on when it comes to renewable energy. Wind power development in Iceland is still on early stages... (More) - Modern life is highly dependent on electrical energy and energy consumption over the world is rapidly increasing. Most of all electric power in the world is generated by burning fossil fuel such as coal, oil or natural gases. Energy production based on burning fossil fuel has considerable negative impact on the environment and is one of the major cause of air pollution. The fast growing demand for electrical energy and the negative impact that the most common electrical power generation methods produce, increases the demand for renewable energy sources around the world.
Wind power is an energy source that many countries have been focusing on when it comes to renewable energy. Wind power development in Iceland is still on early stages where there are no wind farms and only a few wind turbines up and running in the whole country. However, the fast growing development of wind power that has been taking place and around the world has not gone unseen in Iceland where the interest in wind power is growing rapidly.
Even though producing energy by using wind is by far a better choice than using nonrenewable energy sources such as fossil fuel, that has considerable negative impact on the environment. Wind power development has some environmental impacts that needs to be addressed. By including environmental issues in the site selection process of wind power developments the environmental impact of the developments can be minimized.
During the site selection of wind farms, many different variables need to be taken into consideration, not only criteria that determine the viability of wind farms such as wind speed but also environmental and socio-economic issues that the wind power development confers.
This thesis presents a framework for site selection of wind farms in Iceland that accounts for possible environmental issues to be addressed in the first steps of the wind power development, in the site selection process itself. The proposed framework is based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). It incorporates the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), sensitivity analysis as well as various spatial analysis.
A case study was conducted where the methodological framework was used to estimate 2 different areas of study. The results of the case study indicated that the method can serve as a beneficial decision support tool that provides the decision maker with series of suitability maps and statistics to support the optimal siting of wind farms. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8899733
- author
- Sveinsdóttir, Gréta Hlín LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- GISM01 20161
- year
- 2017
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- renewable energy, wind power development, site selection, geographical information system (GIS), multi-criteria decision analysis, Physical Geography and Ecosystem analysis
- publication/series
- Master Thesis in Geographical Information Science
- report number
- 63
- language
- English
- id
- 8899733
- date added to LUP
- 2017-01-17 11:17:34
- date last changed
- 2017-01-17 11:17:34
@misc{8899733,
abstract = {{Wind power development in Iceland is still on early stages where there are no wind farms and only a few wind turbines up and running in the whole country. However, the fast growing development of wind power that has been taking place in Europe and around the world has not gone unseen in Iceland. The interest in wind power is growing rapidly and the preparation of the development of the first wind farm in Iceland has already started.
Even though producing energy by using wind is by far a better choice than using nonrenewable energy sources, wind power development has some environmental impacts that needs to be addressed. By including environmental issues in the site selection process of wind power developments the environmental impact of the developments can be minimized.
During the site selection of wind farms, many different variables need to be taken into consideration, not only criteria that determine the viability of wind farms such as wind speed but also environmental and socio-economic issues that the wind power development confers.
This thesis presents a framework for site selection of wind farms in Iceland that accounts for possible environmental issues to be addressed in the first steps of the wind power development, in the site selection process itself. The proposed framework is based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). It incorporates the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), sensitivity analysis as well as various spatial analysis.
A case study was conducted where the methodological framework was used to estimate 2 different areas of study. The results of the case study indicated that the method can serve as a beneficial decision support tool that provides the decision maker with series of suitability maps and statistics to support the optimal siting of wind farms.}},
author = {{Sveinsdóttir, Gréta Hlín}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Master Thesis in Geographical Information Science}},
title = {{GIS-based MCDA for decision support : a framework for wind farm siting in Iceland}},
year = {{2017}},
}