David Ostman ver meistaraverkefni sitt í umhverfis- og auðlindafræði. Verkefnið ber heitið A new approach for assessing landscape impacts of geothermal power plants: A case study of Hellisheiði
Ágrip
Geothermal energy utilization has become a burgeoning resource for many countries, but specifically for Iceland where it accounts for 24% of the total electricity generation capacity and is a main source of hot water for district heating. As the global interest and energy demand continues to grow, so should the need to monitor its social and environmental impacts in a more strategic manner. One of the more notable impacts caused by geothermal power plant development is a transformation of the spatial/visual elements of the landscape. Evaluating these particular landscape impacts can be challenging process and is often left underrepresented compared to the other social and environmental considerations. This study set out to shed light on these impacts and propose a new Geographic Information System (GIS)-based methodology for assessing and rating geothermal power plants based on six spatial and visual landscape factors: (a) fragmentation, (b) surface area, (c) visibility, (d) geothermal sprawl, (e) wilderness area reduction, and (f) conservation conflicts. The approach, named the Spatial Landscape Impact Assessment rating system (SLIA), was developed and tested on the Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Plant in Iceland and the Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant for comparison. Compared to Nesjavellir, Hellisheiði had a higher SLIA rating and thus a higher visual and spatial impact on the landscape.
Leiðbeinendur: Þóra Ellen Þórhallsdóttir prófessor og Sveinbjörn Björnsson fv. prófessor.
Prófdómari: Jakob Gunnarsson