New Pub Looks at the Landscape Impacts of Energy vs Other Activities
A new technique has been used to quantify and compare the landscape impacts of energy expansion vs. other land use activities. Researchers found that the greatest impact was from agriculture, which affected about 16% of the study area, while the smallest impact was from wind turbines (<0.01% of the study area, accounting for both turbine pads and power transmission lines). Oil and gas activities together affected less than 1% of the study area. It was also noted that the impacts of diffuse, widely spread activities were greater than those of larger but more concentrated operations. The method promises to be useful in evaluating how anthropogenic land use changes affect wildlife habitat.
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