Development of a Cumulative Impact Assessment tool for birds in Norwegian Offshore Waters: Trollvind OWF as a case study

• Main Authors: Layton-Matthews, Kate, Buckingham, Lila, Critchley, Emma Jane, Nilsson, Anna L. K., Ollus, Victoria M. S., Ballesteros, Manuel, Christensen-Dalsgaard, Signe, Dehnhard, Nina, Fauchald, Per, Hanssen, Frank, Helberg, Morten, Masden, Elizabeth, May, Roel F., Sandvik, Hanno, Tarroux, Arnaud, Reiertsen, Tone K.
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Bergen; Norway; Troll; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/000a3bc7-d5ca-4447-a429-7da2a63a8535; https://pureadmin.uhi.ac.uk/ws/files/46780483/ninarapport2295.pdf; https://brage.nina.no/nina-xmlui/handle/11250/3073159; https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3073159

Development of a Cumulative Impact Assessment tool for birds in Norwegian Offshore Waters: Trollvind OWF as a case study. NINA Report 2295. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. There is growing interest in the economic potential of marine areas for e.g., offshore renewables, fisheries, and shipping. Thus, the cumulative stress on marine ecosystems and the species inhabiting them is increasing. This is of particular concern for migratory birds and seabirds which are undergoing global declines. In the light of an expanding global market for offshore renewables, knowledge of their cumulative impacts combined with other human-derived pressures on marine populations is crucial. This is set against the backdrop of climate change and associated large-scale changes in our oceans. Achieving sustainable development, while mitigating the effects of climate change, requires effective tools to assess the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic stressors on ecosystems. Cumulative impact assessments for the marine environment are strongly influenced by an approach developed by Halpern et al. (2008). In this report, we present and demonstrate a beta-version of a cumulative impact assessment tool for marine industrial pressures on seabirds, which is being developed through the Research Council of Norway (RCN) -funded MARCIS project. The goal of MARCIS is to assess the impacts of marine anthropogenic pressures on seabirds in the North-East Atlantic, which will both utilise and further develop the Halpern formula and provide a publicly open web-based tool that acts as a decision support for marine spatial planning. Equinor has been exploring the potential for con-structing a floating offshore wind farm, called Trollvind, in the North Sea. This proposed floating wind farm is in the early planning stages of development and is proposed to be located around the Troll offshore oil and gas platforms, approximately 65 km west of Bergen. This report presents; 1) a summary of a scoping of existing data of birds using Norwegian offshore ...