Defining 'local area' for assessing impact of offshore renewables and other marine developments: guidance principles
These guidance principles provide a first step in developing an appropriate approach for defining the impact area on land for large industrial developments (such as offshore windfarms) at sea. The principles are based on a review of literature and practice described in the accompanying report.
1. Introduction
In 2019, BiGGAR Economics was commissioned to undertake a study into the process through which local areas are defined and the impacts within them are assessed for offshore developments. This document is a guide for developers in how to use the principles that emerged from that study to define local areas for socio-economic assessment.
1.1 Study Objectives
The overarching question of the research project was 'How can identification of 'local' for socio-economic impacts be standardised for marine development so better comparisons can be made between different development scenarios?' In particular, this study was concerned with the geographies that are used in socio-economic impact assessments, such as those submitted in Environmental Impact Assessments as part of the planning process.
The research objectives for this project were as follows:
- Review the methodology used to define local areas across different renewables developments and other marine sectors;
- Produce a set of principles for identifying the local area of impact based on review findings and test these using completed or on-going developments as case studies; and
- Provide recommendations on approaches and methodologies on creating local boundaries by developers and decision-makers.
The principles developed in that study are designed to be used by organisations assessing the socio-economic impact of offshore developments. This guidance document explains in details how these principles can be applied.
1.2 Guidance Document Structure
The rest of the guidance document is structured as follows:
- Section 2 outlines the principles that were developed during the study for defining local areas for offshore developments;
- Section 3 describes the process through which these principles can be used to define local areas; and
- Section 4 provides two worked examples of using the principles to define local areas for hypothetical projects.
Contact
Email: ScotMER@gov.scot
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