AUTHOR
Wimmer, Kathrin

DATE
2000-05-31

DEPARTMENT
Environmental Engineering / Traffic Engineering

SUMMARY
The establishment of wind power plants increases worldwide due to the growing need of renewable energy with no polluting emissions. In the sparsely populated municipality of Storuman, situated in the county of Västerbotten, northern Sweden, the question arises if and where wind power can be used to support a sustainable development of the region. This new topic shall be dealt with in the updating of the comprehensive plan, where problems of land use should be solved and a direction for the future development of the municipality should be suggested. The work on the new plan is part of the so-called SAMS-project, which aims to better integrate environmental objectives and to develop plan indicators for the spatial planning process.

In the mountainous part of the municipality, there are areas with possibly high wind energy. At the same time, this region is dependent on tourism and very important for recreation, nature protection and cultural heritage. These interests are often not compatible with the establishment of turbines and therefore a selection of sites was carried out in this study. Objectives and planning indicators were adapted for that purpose. A geographic information system was used for the analysis of areas and interests and the visualization of the effects on the landscape profile. Finally, alternative solutions were developed and simulated on plans, photomontages and as images from simple three-dimensional terrain models. One alternative was suggested and further recommendations concerning the design, the number, and the distribution of wind power plants were given.

ISSN 1402-1617 / ISRN LTU-EX--00/232--SE / NR 2000:232