Evaluate suitability for fishery in UK EEZ with co-location of offshore wind farms on GIS-based framework

• Main Author: Sun, Qi
• Other Authors: Henley, Sian
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: The University of Edinburgh 2019
• Subjects: marine spatial planning; GIS; atlantic cod; Turbot
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1842/36246

The offshore marine area has been increasingly important due to the prevalence of sustainable renewable energy development, such as wind energy, in the already heavily exploited offshore marine space. The concept of co-location has been proposed for coupling different activities and guiding more efficient marine spatial management. In this research, part of offshore wind farms (OWFs) in round 3 within the UK exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the North Sea were selected as study area and indexed suitability for fishery activity. Four fish species (European sea bass, Atlantic cod, haddock and turbot) were chosen as candidates. The suitability evaluation was based on multi-criteria such as temperature, salinity and addressed in GIS-based (Geographical Information Science) framework. The most potential co-location site differed from fish species and seasons. From June to November, OWF G was the most ideal co-location sites for European sea bass and turbot. While OWF F was more suitable for fishery sites of Atlantic cod and haddock. From December to May, OWF G also provided favorable living condition for all the fish species except for Atlantic cod. In summary, results showed that several OWFs had high potential to develop co-location fishery in view of the biological suitability. This might assist the decision-makers or stakeholders to develop marine spatial strategy for pilot co-location sites.