Dataset Information

Land cover and topography affect the land transformation caused by wind facilities.

ABSTRACT: Land transformation (ha of surface disturbance/MW) associated with wind facilities shows wide variation in its reported values. In addition, no studies have attempted to explain the variation across facilities. We digitized land transformation at 39 wind facilities using high resolution aerial imagery. We then modeled the effects of turbine size, configuration, land cover, and topography on the levels of land transformation at three spatial scales. The scales included strings (turbines with intervening roads only), sites (strings with roads connecting them, buried cables and other infrastructure), and entire facilities (sites and the roads or transmission lines connecting them to existing infrastructure). An information theoretic modeling approach indicated land cover and topography were well-supported variables affecting land transformation, but not turbine size or configuration. Tilled landscapes, despite larger distances between turbines, had lower average land transformation, while facilities in forested landscapes generally had the highest land transformation. At site and string scales, flat topographies had the lowest land transformation, while facilities on mesas had the largest. The results indicate the landscape in which the facilities are placed affects the levels of land transformation associated with wind energy. This creates opportunities for optimizing wind energy production while minimizing land cover change. In addition, the results indicate forecasting the impacts of wind energy on land transformation should include the geographic variables affecting land transformation reported here.

SUBMITTER: Diffendorfer JE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3928332 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Land cover and topography affect the land transformation caused by wind facilities.

Diffendorfer Jay E JE Compton Roger W RW

PloS one 20140218 2

Land transformation (ha of surface disturbance/MW) associated with wind facilities shows wide variation in its reported values. In addition, no studies have attempted to explain the variation across facilities. We digitized land transformation at 39 wind facilities using high resolution aerial imagery. We then modeled the effects of turbine size, configuration, land cover, and topography on the levels of land transformation at three spatial scales. The scales included strings (turbines with inte ...[more]

PMID: 24558449

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Project description:Research on spatial non-stationarity of land-cover classification accuracy has been ongoing for over two decades with most of the work focusing on single date maps. We extend the understanding of thematic map accuracy spatial patterns by: (1) quantifying spatial patterns of map-reference agreement for class-specific land-cover change rather than class-specific land cover for both omission and commission expressions of map error; (2) reporting goodness-of-fit estimates for the empirical models, which have been lacking in previous assessments, and; (3) using the empirical model results to map the locations of the relative likelihoods of map-reference agreement for specific land-cover change classes. We evaluated 10 map-based explanatory variables in single and multivariable logistic regression models to predict the likelihood of agreement between map and reference land-cover change (2001-2011) labels using the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2011 land cover and accuracy data. Logistic models for omission error had better goodness-of-fit estimates than models for commission error. For the omission error models, the explanatory variable, density of the mapped class-specific change in the immediate neighbourhood surrounding the sample pixel, produced the best model fit results (Tjur coefficient of discrimination, D, ranged from 0.59 to 0.98) compared to multivariable models and all other single explanatory variable models. Maps of the predicted likelihood of map-reference agreement produced from the best fitting omission error models provide a spatially explicit description of spatial variation of classification uncertainty at both local and regional scales. Application of the models indicated higher likelihoods of agreement (>50%) comprised a greater proportion of the land-cover change class area than the proportion of the land-cover change class with lower likelihoods of agreement. NLCD users can apply reported equations to map land-cover change uncertainty.

Dataset Information

Land cover and topography affect the land transformation caused by wind facilities.

Publications

Land cover and topography affect the land transformation caused by wind facilities.

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