RELY - Renewable energy and landscape quality

In response to climate change, limited fossil fuels, and rising energy demand and prices, renewable energy is heavily promoted throughout Europe. While objectives to boost renewable energy and trans-European energy networks are ambitious, it is increasingly understood that public acceptance becomes a constraining factor, and general support for green energy does not always translate into local support for specific projects. Perceived landscape change and loss of landscape quality have featured heavily in opposition campaigns in many European countries, even though renewable energy can facilitate sustainable development, especially in disadvantaged regions rich in wind, water, biomass, geothermal or solar energy.

This Action investigates the inter-relationships between renewable energy production and landscape quality, and the role of public participation for the acceptance of renewable energy systems. The Action will develop a better understanding of how landscape protection and management, and renewable energy deployment can be reconciled to contribute socio-environmentally to the sustainable transformation of energy systems. This Action will consolidate and extend knowledge from a pan-European perspective using a modular methodological framework. This Action will enhance the science base for decision-making, and develop guidelines for public participation in planning renewable energy systems. The potential of sustainable landscape development, with innovative land uses producing synergies for landscape quality and renewable energy, will be revealed.

Project details

 Action member: Michele Bottarelli

Funding source: COST

Start date 16/10/2014 - end date 15/10/2018

Participants

  • Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Germany - Chair
  • Hochschule OÖ, Austria
  • Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
  • University of Liege, Belgium
  • Ghent University, Belgium
  • Center for Spatial Research, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • University of Banjaluka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Forest Research Institute, Bulgaria
  • Civil Engineering Faculty in Osijek, Croatia
  • Institute of Geonics ASCR, Czech Republic
  • Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v.v.i., Czech Republic
  • Copenhagen University, Denmark
  • School of Humanities, Estonia
  • Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia
  • University of Turku, Finland
  • CNRS, France
  • World Heritage consulting, France
  • INER, Germany
  • Federal Agency for nature conservation, Germany
  • International Hellenic University, Greece
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Szent Istvan University, Hungary
  • Hunscapes Co. Ltd., Hungary
  • University of Iceland, Iceland
  • Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
  • Dublin City University, Ireland
  • Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  • Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
  • University of Ferrara, Italy
  • Universita degli Studi di Trento, Italy
  • Latvian University: Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences, Latvia
  • Silava, Latvia
  • Vilnius University, Lithuania
  • Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), Malta
  • University of Malta, Malta
  • Faculty of Management in Herceg Novi, Montenegro
  • Rijksdienst voor het cultureel erfgoed, Netherlands
  • Faculty of natural and technical sciences, North Macedonia
  • Centre for Rural Research - University centre Dragvoll, Norway
  • NIBIO - Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway
  • Institute of Spatial Management and Housing, Poland
  • Centre for System Solutions, Poland
  • University of Lisbon, Portugal
  • Centre for Research in Anthropology, Portugal
  • University of Bucharest, Romania
  • University of Architecture and Urban Planning "Ion Mincu", Romania
  • University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
  • Technical University in Zvolen, Slovakia
  • University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • University of Granada, Spain
  • Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
  • Landscape architecture, planning and management. Sweden
  • Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Switzerland
  • University of Bartın, Turkey
  • Yuzuncu Yıl University, Turkey
  • University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • James Hutton Institute, United Kingdom
  • Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
  • Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Croatia
  • Institute of Geonics, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
  • Aalborg University, Denmark
  • Tallinn University, Estonia
  • Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonia
  • EMU, Estonia
  • BG Consulting in World Heritage Conflict Management, France
  • Lenné3D GmbH, Germany
  • Nuertingen Geislingen University (NGU), Germany
  • Technical University of Crete, Greece
  • Environmental Planning and Education Network, Hungary
  • Helmholtz Umweltforschungszentrum, Germany
  • Environmental Education Network, Hungary
  • University of Florence - Scool of Architecture, Italy
  • Cultural Heritage Agency, Netherlands
  • Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Norway
  • Polish Landscape Architects Association, Poland
  • Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland
  • University of Warsaw, Poland
  • Institute of Spatial Management and Housing, Poland
  • Insituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
  • Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Portugal
  • Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
  • University of Valladolid, Spain
  • Laboratorio Europeo de Ciencias Sociales, Spain
  • Territoria, análisis y gestión del medio sl, Spain
  • Lulea University of Technology, Sweden
  • Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
  • Lund University, Sweden
  • Institute of sustainable Development, INE, Switzerland
  • University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • IUniversity of St Andrews, United Kingdom
  • Epoka University, Albania
  • University of British Columbia, Canada