Monitoring the effects of offshore wind farms on bird life (EVINBO)

In the environmental licence for offshore wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea, a monitoring programme is imposed on the licensee to examine the impact of the project on the different aspects of the marine environment. In the first part of the monitoring programme, the emphasis is mainly on describing the immediate impact/immediate effects (= basic monitoring) of the wind farms on the ecosystem. The second part of the monitoring seeks to go further and aims to unravel cause-effect relationships with a focus on processes. The emphasis in this monitoring is thus on understanding the ecosystem effects (= targeted monitoring). This should make it possible to (1) implement current and future mitigation measures, (2) predict the future impact more accurately and (3) evolve from specific observations per site to a more generic knowledge about the impact of wind farms on the ecosystem. Within this framework, INBO is conducting research into the disruptive effects of offshore wind farms on sea birds and the likelihood of sea birds colliding with the turbines. Other parties within the research consortium are looking at the effects on hydrodynamics, benthic fauna, epifauna and fish stocks.