Getting it right first time: LiDAR for offshore wind developers

One of the ways APEM Group added certainty to our surveys is through lessons learned in our work in Europe. APEM Group have added LiDAR technology to our Digital Aerial Surveys (DAS), capturing data on bird flight heights that can’t be replicated using DAS alone. As flight heights calculated using DAS are no longer accepted for consenting in Europe, LIDAR can be viewed as a valuable addition to DAS in environmental data collection.

Digital Aerial Surveys and LiDAR: an unbeatable combination

Data taken from DAS will be an essential component of the proportionate impact assessment process in the future for Australia, as part of project specific development proposals, approvals and referrals. The data will also help refine the collision risk modelling process: a critical component of many seabird species assessments, to determine how many birds may fatally collide with wind turbine generators.

Establishing the risk of this potential impact is a critical component of most developers’ EIA and referral processes. Accounting for wider confidence intervals associated with flight heights means having to account for higher impacts from collision risk, leading to greater uncertainty in the estimated risk to different seabird species. This is especially important given the wealth of seabird species in Australasian waters, and the effort that goes into the EIA process.

With high levels of scrutiny from government and state level regulators, conservation bodies, other consultancies and the public, robust scientific data is key to providing confidence in these predictions. Impacts predicted from collision risk using LiDAR data can be accurately understood, and less precaution needs to be built into the input parameters for collision risk modelling due to more precise data.

When considering potential impacts from potential OSW projects on seabirds, Digital Aerial Surveys and LiDAR allow for more efficient referrals, and more robust and accurate risk analysis from the beginning. A simple addition to data collection methods, LiDAR provides OSW developers and government regulators with the confidence that financial, environmental and delivery risks can be successfully mitigated on time and budget, with impact levels agreed upon from the outset.

Identifying which seabird species and species groups use the seas in Australian waters as well as natural abundance, seasonal usage and behaviour will form the bedrock determining baseline conditions.

What else can LiDAR data be used for?

As well as the need to gather baseline data for developers in Australia, regional data sharing is a critical issue. We are not only looking at location-specific impacts but also regional and cumulative impacts on populations.

There is more work to be done and more information to come from the regulator, but APEM Group are adapting our surveys to consider regional impacts. Developers are looking to APEM Group to understand how they can use a collaborative approach in the future, potentially with a series of databases that incorporate data from impact assessment processes for OSW developments.

The important thing for developers is that consultancies work in a cost effective and efficient manner but, crucially, that their data is accurate enough to be revisited in the future and on a larger scale.

In combination with Digital Aerial Surveys, LiDAR provides greater confidence in the data collected and reduces uncertainty in future decision making. A critical component of the impact assessment and referral process, the more precise the determination, the better tailored mitigation measures with less unnecessary precaution, saving time, costs and the need for further surveys or changes to developers’ plans.