Wind turbines, photovoltaic, hydroelectric or geothermal power plants, renewable energies are now well represented in our landscapes. A study (1) conducted as part of the COST Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality (RELY) project, in which Serge Schmitz, Director of LAPLEC (SPHERES Research Unit), participated, examined the impact of these installations on the landscapes of European countries and proposes a serie of recommendations to help states integrate this landscape issue into their development plans.
T
he development of renewable energies, while contributing to solving many of the challenges European countries are facing, such as the fight to limit global warming, energy dependence on third countries or the creation of new local jobs, also raises many questions and oppositions, including the question of their landscape impact. It is therefore time to pay attention to what is being done and to think about how to do it. This is the task of 150 researchers from 37 European countries, as part of the COST* Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality action, which aims to study the link between renewable energy production and landscape quality. Its objective: to analyse how to reconcile landscape protection and the deployment of renewable energies to contribute to the sustainable transformation of energy systems, whether wind, photovoltaic, hydroelectric, biomass or geothermal.
The University of Liège, through its Laboratory for the Analysis of European Places, Landscapes and Campaigns (LAPLEC) - within the SPHERES Research Unit- has actively contributed to this action and to the publication of a book that has just been published by Jovis Verlag, which summarizes four years of work in 296 richly illustrated pages. Professor Serge Schmitz, Director of LAPLEC, co-directed with a Norwegian colleague, the first part of the book which presents the development of renewable energies and how landscape issues are taken into account in 33 European countries. "The diversity of physical factors is a first key to analysis, but the national energy heritage and politics are blurring the lines," explains Professor Serge Schmitz. As for the consideration of landscape in development plans or the introduction of renewable energies, the marked cultural differences take precedence, especially since the definition of the notion of landscape is far from being homogeneous on a pan-European scale. "The book is very accessible and compiles guidelines for assessing the suitability and vulnerability of landscapes for renewable energy projects, as well as a toolkit for public participation in landscape-based planning. It also provides a multilingual glossary of landscape and energy terms.
Professor Serge Schmitz has also developed with seven fellow geographers, engineers, agronomists, architects and anthropologists, a list of characteristics of what constitute "smart practices" that are all ways to help states integrate the landscape issue into their development plans. The other parts of the book present the characteristics of the different types of energy, develop issues of governance and citizen participation and propose a multilingual glossary.
*COST Actions are networking programmes set up by the European Union to promote exchanges and knowledge sharing between groups of researchers from all over Europe.
(1) Roth Michael, Eiter Sebastian, Röhner Sina, Kruse Alexandra, Schmitz Serge, Frantal Bohumil, Centeri Csaba, Frolova Marina, Buchecker Matthias, Stober Dina, Karan Isadora, Van der Horst Dan (eds), 2018. Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality. Berlin: Jovis, 296p. ISBN 978-3-8-86859-524-6
LAPLEC - SPHERES Research Unit - Faculty of Sciences
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