TY - JOUR
TI - Implications of offshore wind energy developments in coastal and maritime tourism and recreation areas: An analytical overview
AU - Machado, J
AU - Andrés, M
T2 - Environmental Impact Assessment Review
AB - Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) became promising investments to meet climate change targets while bringing autonomy and development to several coastal countries. However, these developments may cause externalities, primarily affecting users dependent on maritime space and its seascapes, such as Tourism and Recreation (T&R). The marine renewable expansion, in general, is expected by some of the actors involved to affect T&R with the prospect of decreasing local welfare and the number of visitors. Nonetheless, this influence over Coastal and Maritime Tourism & Recreation is not well addressed by academic papers. Here we assess this literature gap via a semi-systematic narrative meta-synthesis (SSNMS) which expands on the methodology and results of two guiding reference studies (Scottish Government, 2008; Parsons & Firestone, 2018) to conjecture about this topic. The SSNMS promotes the evaluation studies produced between 2015 and 2019 selected through a rigorous investigation of relevant peer-reviewed keywords in Scopus and Web of Science. The analysis revealed that the studied knowledge gap persists and that OWFs can indeed impact coastal communities dependent on maritime tourism and recreational activities, despite the obligatory Environmental Impact Assessment for OWFs. However, both negative and positive impacts greatly vary with development stages and locations. Nevertheless, results still provide valuable conclusions common to generic coastal areas dealing with offshore wind farms sitting. In the few cases where authors consider T&R in their impact analysis, the results indicate a lack of public sensitivity and participation. Higher clarity and participation in the process might play a key role in generating optimistic attitudes toward OWF projects and positive synergies in between the local Blue Economy actors. In conclusion, the projected negative impacts mainly emerge as a reaction to the absence of proper integration between local T&R stakeholders and OWF developers, demonstrating that adverse effects are mitigable and preventable. Furthermore, the results indicate that a distinctive Tourism & Recreation Impact Assessment should be part of the obligatory technical assessments submitted by the OWF developers in coastal areas that rely on these activities.
DA - 2023/03//
PY - 2023
VL - 99
SP - 106999
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195925522002657
DO - 10.1016/j.eiar.2022.106999
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Fixed Offshore Wind
KW - Human Dimensions
KW - Recreation & Tourism
ER -