Biography
Felix Butschek is a GIS Researcher in the iCRAG marine geoscience research spoke. Felix graduated with a joint Erasmus Mundus master’s degree in marine spatial planning from Universidade dos Açores, Università Iuav di Venezia and Universidad de Sevilla before joining iCRAG under the supervision of Prof. Andy Wheeler and Dr. Jared Peters.
As more and more activities move offshore, the use, exploitation and conservation of marine resources becomes an increasingly important challenge. Targets to decarbonize our economy, protect marine biodiversity and establish long term food-security can only be met through a sustainable blue economy.
In developing seabed zonation tools for offshore wind developments and marine spatial planning, Felix tries to optimize the allocation of space at sea by maximizing renewable energy generation while minimizing costs to the industry and environment as well as conflicts with existing maritime activities.
Technical description
This research project integrates concepts of marine spatial planning and multi-criteria decision aid in a GIS model to assess where offshore wind projects are best placed to become strategic pillars of the Irish renewable energy strategy. Marine geological, biological, physical, engineering and cultural data is weighted based on an analytical hierarchy process. Monte Carlo simulations of this digital model then hep identify the most and least favourable areas for offshore wind generation. This iterative approach also allows to quantify model uncertainty and variability.
The conflict with other existing users such as maritime traffic and existing license holders under the Irish Foreshore Act are also examined and contribute to a score of areas based on their suitability for offshore energy developments.
Role
- Specialist Staff
Institution
- UCC
Research Area
- Safeguard the Geomarine Environment
Expertise
- GIS, Glacial Landforms, Mapping, Marine, Paleoceanography
