Screening of previous projects for relevant data that can be integrated into the Smart Altitude WebGIS and the publication of the results in WIKIAlps (Deliverable D.T1.1.3)

All screened Alpine Space projects are listed below categorised by theme.

Project end date: 12/2018
Project homepage: http://www.alpine-space.eu/projects/alpes/en/home

Transfer to Smart Altitude:

• IGF/ÖAW is project partner and will integrate the gained expertise and platform development in Smart Altitude
• WebGIS development and functions will be used (www.alpes-webgis.eu)
• WIKIAlps platform will be used (www.wikialps.eu)

Project end date: 31/12/2014
Project homepage: http://www.wikialps-project.eu/Pages/default.aspx and http://www.alpine-space.org/2007-2013/projects/projects/detail/WIKIAlps/show/index.html

Transfer to Smart Altitude:

• IGF was project partner, WIKI Alps was already further developed in AlpES project, so project results, output (mainly WIKIAlps) and expertise are integrated in Smart Altitude.
• The wiki will be further developed in Smart Altitude, it will contextually grow in article count

Improving Ecological Connectivity in the Alps
Project end date: 30/11/2011
http://www.alpine-space.org/2007-2013/projects/projects/detail/ECONNECT/show/index.html

output: http://jecami.eu/

Potentially interesting layers (geodata) - Patch Cohesion COH - Landscape Heterogenity and Edge Density Landscape Shape Index - Relevant for migration of species in an area of interest - Could be interesting for Smart Altitude considering new buildings, barriers or landscape changes because of energie gain or use - Environmental Protection ENV: International Protected Areas - Similar to IGF own Protected Areas - CSI - Continuum suitability index (also classified)

Potentially interesting tool: CSI Example application: red deer friendly environment of an example ski area? described in the tutorial: http://jecami.eu/doc/Intro.pdf „These results can be compared with optimal results for a red deer (in red). As most indicators show, the area is almost optimal for a red deer. However, the indicators that have suboptimal values are Land Use and Infrastructure. This is due to the populated regions and to the numerous skiing infrastructure.”

Transfer to Smart Altitude:

• Some data could potentially be interesting: forest areas, lakes… BUT available only for the Alpine Convention Area not for (whole) Alpine Space; data cannot easily embedded – not even through ArcGIS Server after tutorial description (Server URL: http://webgis.nationalpark.ch:6080/arcgis/services is not working anymore?)
• If data are really useful in Smart Altitude, we could ask EURAC concerning data providing
• Tutorial shows a good example of a WebGIS Tutorial. We already have our own AlpES WebGIS tutorial with similar structure.
• If we should calculate renewable energy potential in ski resorts or municipalities and take into account if solutions are wild animal friendly, we could consider the CSI tool for animal friendly environment/paths or link to JECAMI WebGIS

Project end: 2015

General information/Abstract: “The Alps have great potential for the use of renewable energy. Thereby they can make a valuable contribution to mitigating climate change. This, however, means increasing pressures on nature. What could be the impact of such changes on the habitats of animals and plants? How do they affect land use and soil quality? How much renewable energy can reasonably be used? The project recharge.green brings together 16 partners to develop strategies and tools for decision-making on such issues. The analysis and comparison of the costs and benefits of renewable energy, ecosystem services, and potential trade-offs is a key component in this process. The project will last from October 2012 to June 2015 and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund in the Alpine Space Programme.” Source: http://www.recharge-green.eu/project/

Approach: “technical and economic potentials for the renewable energy sources biomass, hydropower, wind and solar in the Alpine region, while at the same time elaborating rankings of hotspots with respect to ecosystem services, most notably biodiversity and soils” http://www.recharge-green.eu/approach/

Related WebGIS: http://jecami.eu/

Project results to be downloaded: http://www.recharge-green.eu/downloads/

interesting tools: Alpine Area r.green and Pilot region r.green

Alpine Area r.green - calculated renewable potential of four technologies: Bioenergy, Windpower, Hydropower and Solar Potential in the Alpine Convention – available in JECAMI WebGIS - Except of Solar Potenzial there are not much result pixels over the whole area - Outputraster has a very coarse resolution of approximatively 5*10km - I cannot find the legend to the output colors - More information on the tools and models developed by recharge.green is available in the fact sheets, see http://www.recharge-green.eu/approach/

Screenshot tool Alpine Area r.green in JECAMI WebGIS – Hydropower results - default

Screenshot tool Alpine Area r.green in JECAMI WebGIS – Solar PV results - default

Pilot region r.green - Results with higher resolution for two pilot regions (Triglav for example) - Tool available only for forest biomass and hydropower technologies - http://www.recharge-green.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Poster_r-green_v4.pdf (good overview of the two tools) - These two tools, are open source on GRASS GIS available - https://grass.osgeo.org/grass74/manuals/addons/r.green.hydro.html - https://grass.osgeo.org/grass74/manuals/addons/r.green.biomassfor.html - https://grass.osgeo.org/grass74/manuals/addons/r.green.hydro.technical.html

Screenshot tool Pilot Region r.green in JECAMI WebGIS – Hydropower results - default

List of Input datasets (to be checked, if available at high resolution): - No information founded to the resolution needed for the DEM and DTM to receive useful results

Tool 1 Forest Biomass http://www.recharge-green.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/r.green_.biomass.pdf - Mandatory data input: - Forest stand map with yield and increment values - Forest management and treatment - Ordinary and forest road network - Water network (possible) - Digital elevation model (possible) Optional: - Soil data (texture, depth, fertility) - Lakes (possible) - Protected Areas (possible) - Fire risk - Costs and marked price of different wood typologies - Level of adopted machanization - Except of the few possible ones, all other datasets are not open source data but must have a high resolution to fit the needs of Smart Altitude. - Data Source of the present project: “Data were provided by local or regional administrators in the pilot areas and, when necessary, integrated with Eurac database.” - Contact person(s): Marco Ciolli, Ph.D., University of Trento

Tool 2 Hydropower http://www.recharge-green.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/r.green_.hydro_.pdf Mandatory: - Raster file with discharge values along the rivers - Raster file with environmental flow - Digital terrain model - Shapefile with existing intakes, reservoirs and hydro plant (ID, capacity, kind of turbines) - Areas where hydro plants are forbidden Optional: - Lakes, streets, weirs, electricity grid, parks, area of particular interest - Geologic and soil map, cadastre map - Duration curves, maximum distance between intake and restitution, minimum distance between restitution and the following dam, increasing of environmental flow - Their Data source: “Data were provided by local or regional administrators from pilot areas.” - Responsible Partner(s) EURAC

Tool 3: Solar PV http://www.recharge-green.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/r.green_.solar_.pdf Mandatory: - Raster file with the elevation (DTM) Optional: - The efficiency value of different technologies - Lakes, streets, electricity grid, parks, area of particular interest, urban areas… - Economics values and costs

Tool 4: Wind http://www.recharge-green.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/r.green_.wind_.pdf Mandatory: - Raster file with wind velocity at different altitude - Digital terrain model Optional: - Lakes, streets, electricity grid, parks, area of particular interest - Geologic and soil map, cadastre map

Transfer to Smart Altitude These two tools/algorithms/GRASS scripts sound interesting but there are critical points to discuss:

• Input data are mostly not available. Not available for the whole Alpine Space. We would have to check, if all Living Labs Ski resorts have all those data (see last input data block) at their disposal in an adequate high resolution. Additionally we could contact r.green@eurac.edu for an existing database. This database would be probably very coarse at Alpine Space level (10km pixels are not interesting for ski resort high resolution calculations).
• In any case, to adapt these tools, collect data, prepare and integrate data in our database/WebGIS, create an adequate interface and complete the other technologies would need a lot of time both for energy experts as well as WebGIS/GIS experts for finding a useful agreement and implementation, it is to decide in project consortium, if main part of IGF-time should be used to calculated renewable potential in the three Living Labs. Is usage/output expected to be useful enough in Smart Altitude?

Contextually critical points:

• Only forest biomass and hydropower available – not all four or more technologies  incomplete impression of potential, is there enough expertise in our project consortium to calculate all possible other renewable technologies, that would make sense in a ski resort?
• Hydropower is very difficult to calculate for a big area. Furthermore it can be presumed, that ski resorts know very well if hydropower could be used in their territory or area of influence. Likely the renewable potential in general is well known and can be calculated in detail only by ingenieurs at a very high resolution, in which general GIS tools are not appropriate
• Renewable potential is either known or has to be calculated by engeneers in detail
• Forest biomass as renewable potential competes against forest as protection forest for example against avalanches, a very important function in ski resorts; ski resorts probably know very well, if their forest is needed or if significant amount of wood can be transported not to cheap or complicated because of topographic limitations to use it for regional energy production