Suchergebnisse

Executive summary. Research aims and methods: The review of Environmental Statements (ESs) sought to determine the socio-economic content of EU member state offshore wind farms (OWFs). This was part of a project funded by the European Offshore Windfarm Development Centre research programme (EOWDC). It parallels a similar study of ESs for UK OWFs. The aim of the EOWDC project is multifaceted: explore methods used to predict socio-economic impacts of OWFs, to enhance understanding of OWF socio-economic impacts (SEI), highlight best practice in how to maximize local benefits and compare predicted impacts with actual impacts. This report includes two elements. The first explores the extent of coverage of socio-economic impacts (SEI) in Environmental Statements (ESs) for recent large OWF projects across a range of European countries. The second element reviews the legislation and policy behind OWFs for EU member state countries to determine how different approaches impact on the socio-economic content of ESs and methodology employed. The review concentrated on OWFs of c50MW and over undertaken from 2010 onwards. The review included 13 projects, in five countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and ES review of socio-economic impacts content—Non-UK EU countries Ireland), ranging in size from 50MW to 752MW. Researchers translated relevant chapters in the ESs were ESs into English using an online translation tool. There was an assessment of ES chapters against a 9-point template covering the research aims, including to: document the extent to which SEI are covered in the ESs, identify the relative coverage of social, economic and other impacts (e.g. cumulative), and identify the relative coverage of SEI in the various stages of the OWF lifecycle. The research also seeks to identify trends over time and to explain variations in ES consideration of impacts (e.g. more coverage for larger projects; any variations according to distance from shore). There is also a consideration of evolving approaches to ...

Executive summary. This research report seeks to provide a systematic review of current literature (both academic and grey) on socio-economic impact assessment methodology and mitigation/enhancement methods. It includes academic, industry and government literature relating to OWF published over the 10 years to 2019. The review first considers impact assessment methodology, and then its application to Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs), for both economic and social impacts. There is then a specific examination of socio-economic impacts of OWFs, with particular reference to Scotland. The executive summary here briefly sets out the nature of socio-economic impacts and their assessment, and associated challenges and opportunities in relation to OWF development, especially in Scotland. Nature of socio-economic impacts and their assessment: Socio-economic impacts can be summarised as the "people effects" of development actions. They cover a wide range of social and economic impacts and the boundaries are fuzzy between social and economic impacts. Economic impacts can range from the macro-impacts on a nation's GNP to the impact on construction workers' wage levels in a town adjacent to a project. Social impacts may include impacts on local demographics, livelihoods, housing, local services, and wellbeing and community cohesion. Socio-economic impact assessment seeks to identify the impacts of development actions on people, and who benefits and who loses; it can help to build the needs and voices of diverse groups in a community into project planning and decision-making. The consideration of the social and economic impacts of major developments has been the poor relation of impact assessment until the current century. However, it is now a much more important element in the assessment of the impacts of major projects. Evolving international guidance, standards and legislation on SIA stress the importance of maximizing opportunities for local content (i.e. jobs for local people and local procurement), and the necessity for a ...