Environmental Data Analytics for Planning Policy

In 2016, FT was appointed to produce a Wind Energy Strategy for Tipperary County Council.

The purpose of the strategy is to guide future assessment of the wind energy planning in the county and to provide technical guidance for policies and objectives of the Tipperary County Development Plan.

One of the many challenges in this project was the necessity to unify existing North and South Tipperary strategies in approaches to methodology. Preparing the strategy involved harmonizing data sources ranging from landscape, existing infrastructure, heritage, topography, geology, soils, hydrology, bio-diversity and accessibility together with considerations of proximity and significance of sensitive receptors including residences, tourism assets, habitats and cultural heritage.

The strategy  was not a static examination of existing individual items, instead it had to consider the evolving role of wind energy in contributing to decarbonisation of the county and local initiatives to halt climate change.  To assist a variety of what-if scenarios were modelled and the relationship to of the existing Landscape Character Assessments (LCAs) for Tipperary was undertaken concurrently to assess the capacity of the landscape to accommodate wind energy development. This permitted deeper investigation challenges, constraints and opportunities of future wind energy developments and facilitated consultation internally with the county council and with external stakeholders and local interested parties.