| Summary: | Geothermal emission contains polluting trace elements that have been reported to damage vegetation in the vicinity of geothermal power plants. In this study a new method, NEEDS (New Energy Externalities Development for Sustainability), is used to assess potential changes in land quality in relation to geothermal power plants. The method is further evaluated for local conditions in Iceland with Hengill geothermal area as a case study. The NEEDS methodology predicts land quality changes by using species richness indices correlated with CORINE data. The objective of this study is to assess changes in land quality within the study site between 2000 and 2006 and also to evaluate the applicability of the method for local conditions in Iceland. PDF (Potentially Disappeared Fraction) value is calculated to obtain relative species richness and to evaluate changes in land quality. The results indicate the relative total decline of the species richness to be 11% with the time span from 2000-2006 within the approximately 510 hectares area of the study site. Comparison of the study area and the reference areas show that the probability of such a large change is close to zero. Hence, the results of the NEEDS calculations indicate that the construction of the Hellisheiði power plant has had a substantial impact on the relative species richness of the area and thereby decreased the area’s land quality. Sýnt hefur verið fram á að snefilefni sem finnast í útblæstri jarðvarmavirkjanna geta valdið skemmdum á gróðri í nágrenni virkjana. Í þessu verkefni er nýrri aðferð, NEEDS (New Energy Externalities Development for Sustainability) beitt til að meta mögulegar breytingar á landgæðum vegna orkuvinnslu jarðvarma. Jafnframt er lagt mat á aðferðina fyrir íslenskar aðstæður með því að skoða jarðhitasvæðið Hengil. NEEDS aðferðafræðin er byggð á aðferð sem spáir fyrir um breytingar á gæðum lands með því að tengja landfræðileg gögn CORINE saman við gögn um tegundaauðgi. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar er annars vegar að meta breytingar á ...
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