Map of bird sensitivities to wind farms in Scotland: A tool to aid planning and conservation

Abstract

Government targets for renewable energy have led to a huge increase in wind farm proposals. Because of its high wind resource, Scotland has more proposed wind farms than any other UK country. Scotland’s upland habitats support many birds of conservation concern, leading to potential conflict with wind farms. To help reduce this conflict, a map of bird sensitivities has been created to guide the location of onshore wind farms in Scotland, based on distributions of 16 bird species of conservation priority and statutory Special Protection Areas. The likely sensitivity of each species to wind farms was assessed from literature, based on foraging ranges, collision risk and sensitivity to disturbance. This information was used to buffer species’ locations to identify areas of ‘high’ or ‘medium’ sensitivity. Individual species maps were converted to 1-km square resolution, and a composite map for all species created by selecting the highest sensitivity rating for each square. The map indicates greater bird sensitivity in northwest Scotland, particularly the Highlands, Western and Northern Isles. Overall, 37% of Scotland is classified as ‘high’, 25% as ‘medium’ and 38% as ‘low/unknown’ sensitivity. The overlap of the mapped species with proposed and existing wind farm developments was assessed and species for which cumulative effects of multiple wind farms are of particular concern identified. Within a Scottish context, bean goose, red kite and hen harrier showed the greatest overlap. Applications and limitations of the approach are discussed.