This tool has been developed to facilitate access to an evidence base of available literature on the impacts of offshore wind farm (OWF) developments and the outcomes for marine ecosystem services. The evidence was collated through a semi-systematic review of global primary scientific literature and UK grey literature, regarding the impacts of OWF developments.

Each piece of evidence found has been mapped onto the relevant Ecosystem Service according to the CICES v 5.1 (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services), MEA (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) or other published classification systems (Ryfield et al., 2019; Hooper et al., 2020). A single source may report multiple pieces of evidence, which are recorded separately in the database.

The tool enables the evidence database to be interrogated and filtered with ease, by subject, pressure and ecosystem service. Summary tables are presented and the full or filtered database can be downloaded according to the user’s requirements.

If you use this tool please use the following citation:

Szostek, C.L., Edwards-Jones, A., Beaumont, N.J., Watson, S.C.L. (2023). ORIES database decision support tool, Plymouth Marine Laboratory 2023, https://ories.pml.space/

Funding and Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken as part of the UK Energy Research Centre research programme; UKERC Phase 4 Research Programme, Research theme 3 (energy, environment and landscapes), by Szostek, C.L., Edwards-Jones, A.E., Beaumont, N.J and Watson, S.C.L. (Plymouth Marine Laboratory).

The work was funded by the UK Research and Innovation Energy Programme under grant number EP/S029575/1. Data from the DREAMS project (Decommissioning – Relative Effects of Alternative Management Strategies, INSITE 2 programme [https ://www.insitenorthsea.org]), Grant reference: NE/T010843/1 was used in analysis (Lemasson et al., 2021).

The database includes data from two systematic maps Lemasson et al., 2022; Papathanasopoulou et al., 2016 and a recent literature review Hooper et al., 2017. Further sources of evidence were obtained through the search engine Google Scholar and the Web of Science platform.

References

Hooper, T., Beaumont, N., Hattam, C. (2017). The implications of energy systems for ecosystem services: A detailed case study of offshore wind. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 70: 230–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.248.

Hooper, T., Hattam, C., Edwards-Jones, A., Beaumont, N. (2020). Public perceptions of tidal energy: Can you predict social acceptability across coastal communities in England? Marine Policy 119:104057. Lemasson, A.J., Knights, A.M., Thompson, M., Lessin, G., Beaumont, N., Pascoe, C. (2021). Evidence for the effects of decommissioning man-made structures on marine ecosystems globally: a systematic map protocal. Environmental Evidence 10(1): 1-11.

Lemasson, A.J., Somerfield, P.J., Schratzberger, M., McNeill, C.L., Nunes, J., Pascoe, C., Watson, S.C.L., Thompson, M.S.A., Couce, E., Knights, A.M. (2022). Evidence for the effects of decommissioning man-made structures on marine ecosystems globally: a systematic map. Environmental Evidence 11(1): 1-29.

Papathanasopoulou, E., Queirós A.M., Beaumont, N., Hooper, T., Nunes, J. (2016). What evidence exists on the local impacts of energy systems on marine ecosystem services: a systematic map. Environmental Evidence 5: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-016-0075-6.

Ryfield, F., Cabana, D., Brannigan, J., Crowe, T. (2019). Conceptualizing ‘sense of place’ in cultural ecosystem services: A framework for interdisciplinary research. Ecosystem Services 36: 100907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2019.100907.