Acceptance of wind energy development worldwide is challenged by stakeholders’ concerns about potential effects on the environment, specifically on wildlife such as birds, bats, and (for offshore wind) marine animals, and the habitats that support them. Other issues of concern to communities near wind energy developments include social and economic impacts, as well as impacts on cultural and social values such as aesthetics, historical sites, and recreational and tourism.Lack of a systematic, widely accepted, and balanced approach for measuring the potential damage to wildlife, habitats, and communities continues to leave wind developers, regulators, and other stakeholders in an uncertain position. This uncertainty may lead to regulatory requirements for studies and monitoring programs that do not necessarily contribute to improved environmental protection. Regulatory requirements and data collection efforts around wind farms during construction, operation, and other project phases need to be more consistently linked to the actual risk posed to a range of animals and habitats. One such approach to accomplishing this linkage is risk-based management(RBM), which may provide value-added as a decision support system.This paper explores the use of ecological RBM in wind energy development for land-based and offshore wind installations. The application of risk as a development and management tool is addressed, including multiple aspects of project risk, many of which are driven by or associated with ecological risk. The nature of how risk is taken into account in consenting/permitting wind projects on land and at sea are reviewed, and a series of risk management tools and approaches surveyed. This paper also explores the adaptation of ecosystem-based management to wind energy development through a series of case studies, and sets forth a framework and best management practices for applying risk-based principles to wind energy. Theanalysis and review of RBM approaches presented in this paper mayprovide helpful insights for improved siting and consenting/permitting processes for regulators and their advisors, particularly in nations where wind energy is still in the early development stages on land and at sea. Wind project developers may benefit from understanding how regulators may approach consenting/permitting. Policy-makers may gain valuable insights into how wind farm development might be managed in future. Researchers and consultants may benefit from the concepts and suggestions that will improve access to insightful monitoring data from wind farmsand will help to directfuture data collection efforts.
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The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES; French: Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, CIEM) is an intergovernmental marine science organization that brings together the efforts and knowledge of 20 Member States, bordering the North Atlantic and the Arctic Circumpolar Zone, on physical oceanography, marine ecosystems and fisheries management. Nowadays, more than 80 Belgian scientists are directly involved in the work of the 150 bodies and expert groups of ICES, which gather the expertise of more than 1500 scientists yearly, totalling up to 5000 scientists from over 700 marine institutes and organizations over the years. This important and often voluntary dedication of Belgian scientists to the work of ICES deserves more visibility among the Belgian scientific community itself and to policy makers.This is, among others, why the BICEpS initiative was launched in 2018. BICEpS general aim is to offer a platform to the Belgian ICES community to get to know each other, to improve collaboration and share information, and to promote ICES to the wider scientific community in Belgium. BICEpS Annual report 2019 presents the second year of activity of this initiative created to reinforce Belgian ICES people. The report targets marine scientists, marine managers and policy makers. It presents the results of the initiative so far. The report contains the list of Belgian ICES members in 2019 with their membership to the different ICES working groups, and the results of the second BICEpS Colloquium organised on 2 December 2019 and hosted by ILVO in Ghent (Summary of the sessions, abstracts of communications presented and list of participants). The abstracts of the colloquium are supplemented by a separate annex published online which assembles the PowerPoint presentations of the colloquium accessible at http://ices.dk/community/groups/Documents/BICEPS/BICEpS19-PPT-presentations.pdf This report is accessible on the ICES website at http://ices.dk/community/groups/Pages/BICEpS.aspx
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