Visualizing avian migration across Norway supporting sustainable coastal and offshore wind energy development

Norway is committed to significant developments of wind energy to promote sustainable development of the energy system. One major potential cumulative conflict between coastal and offshore wind energy development and wildlife arises from the large numbers of migrating birds crossing the North Sea and flying along the elongated Norwegian coastline. This aspect is, however, neglected in (cumulative) environmental impact assessments due to a lack of knowledge on migration corridors. The main objective of VisAviS is to map corridors for bird migration in Norway (mainland and adjacent marine areas) to support (strategic) environmental impact assessments, and ensure optimal coastal and offshore wind-power plant siting with minimal environmental costs. VisAviS will utilize state-of-the-art radar technology combined with visual observations to map migration patterns, species-specific migration behaviour and differences in timing of migration. When and where bird migration takes place will be presented visually using a dynamic and interactive online tool. VisAviS will be developed with a strong involvement and an active participatory strategy from industry and authority partners, thereby ensuring that the tool will be used. VisAviS will result in new insights and approaches, and also ensure and enhance interaction with potential users by providing online tool for knowledge transfer. VisAviS’s activities will generate spatially explicit knowledge and innovative visualizations to reduce migration-related risks as a basis for policy design and facilitate sustainable utilization of wind energy resources. The project’s outcomes will thus help reduce environmental barriers, fostering practical solutions to such risks through innovative tools, and facilitating engagement in the transition to a low-emission society. One-years’ worth of data from three weather radars in Southern Norway have been stored at the University of Amsterdam’s servers. Data exploration and cleaning was performed to assess their quality and usefulness. Several analyses on the radars’ performance have been conducted. Vertical profiles and descriptive statistics on migration intensity have been produced. A first version of an interactive online app is ready. In this app, migration intensity and direction as well as wind speed and direction at different times around the 12 weather radars across Norway can be visualised. Robin Max 3D radars have been deployed at Lista and Utsira since March 2023 which continuously collect tracks from individual targets, including birds, but likely also other objects. During the spring and autumn migrations, observers on the ground at the Lista and Utsira bird observatories have annotated tracks of birds with species ID. These data have been used to refine filtering and quality control procedures to remove clutter. Analyses of the influence of weather on the behaviour of migrating birds including intensity of fluxes, flight height, speed, and direction are currently underway. Data from the Lista Bird Observatory (BirdLife Norway) was compiled. These are daily counts of all species migrating through Lista (1990 – 2023). Counts are performed from March 15th to November 15th (ca. 250 days). 72 species of interest (potentially sensitive to wind energy development) were selected for further analyses. Description of migration phenology in general and for each species was estimated based on these data. In addition, observations (detection-only data) on these 72 species were retrieved from Artskart. The analyses of phenological change on migration with these data is ongoing. For this analysis, only counties south of Trøndelag are selected. An internal survey was conducted in 2024 to streamline the data flow into the web app. Drafts of the system requirement specification, the technical tool backbone, and the web application architecture have been prepared, with finalization expected by the end of 2024. Development of the web app (2025-2026) will be based on Google Cloud for storage and different technologies for automation, data processing, frontend, and hosting haven been identified. In 2023 the project board has been established, and from 2024 onwards an annual workplan assures progress in the project. VisAviS has been featured in the media from its onset, including a documentary on ARTE.

Norway is committed to significant developments of wind energy to promote sustainable development of the energy system. One major potential cumulative conflict between coastal and offshore wind energy development and wildlife arises from the large numbers of migrating birds crossing the North Sea and passing along the elongated Norwegian coastline. This aspect is however neglected in (cumulative) environmental impact assessments due to a lack of knowledge on migratory flyways. The main objective of VisAviS is to map avian migratory flyways in Norway (mainland and adjacent marine areas) to support (strategic) environmental impact assessments, coastal and offshore wind-power plant siting with minimal environmental costs. VisAviS will utilize state-of-the-art radar technology combined with visual observations to map migration patterns, migration behaviour and species-specific phenology. The spatio-temporal patterns will be visualized using a spatio-temporally dynamic online tool. VisAviS is strongly emphasizing an active participatory strategy of industry and authority partner involvement, thereby increasing the probability that they will adopt the solutions. VisAviS will result in new insights and approaches, and also ensure and enhance interaction with potential users by providing online tool for knowledge transfer. VisAviS’s activities will generate spatially explicit knowledge and innovative visualizations to reduce migration risk as a basis for policy design and facilitate sustainable utilization of wind energy resources. The project’s outcomes will thus help reduce environmental barriers, fostering practical solutions to such risks through innovative tools, and facilitating engagement in the transition to a low-emission society.