Anneloes van Noordt
Researcher & GIS expert
Spatial Development Department Flanders
Belgium

Biography
Anneloes van Noordt works as a researcher and GIS expert for the Spatial Development Department of Flanders. She is responsible for the research track of 'resilience', with a focus on sustainable energy landscapes, climate change adaptation and bio productivity. She represents Flanders as a Monitoring Committee member for the European ESPON research programme and was involved in the European INSPIRE Thematic Working Group of Land Use which has drafted the data specification on land use GIS data.

Abstract
Defining Potential Locations for Sustainable Energy Landscapes in Flanders with a GIS-based Analyses

Within the Climate and Energy package of the European Commission the target is set to produce 20% of the energy demand in 2020 with renewable resources. This target has recently been raised to 27% by 2030. Using renewable energy resources has an important impact on the landscape. The territorial footprint of a renewable resource is significantly bigger compared to the classical energy resources if the same amount of energy is to be produced. Within the Spatial Development Department of Flanders the regional ambition has been set to locate areas where big scale renewable energy production can find its place within the landscape in order to respond to the European ambition. Due to the dense use of land in Flanders and multiple restrictions set, like environmental restrictions, security distances for windmills, restrictions set within areas with a high heritage value etc., limited areas are appropriate to be used for big scale renewable energy production. These areas are moreover rapidly shrinking due to other territorial developments. Recently a tool has been developed which can geographically calculate the best areas for the development of energy landscapes. The basis of the tool are three types of input. First the current energy production, both classical and renewable, is mapped. An extensive search has to be done to collect all the data, which at the moment is not centrally available and convert it into a geographical dataset. Secondly the potential to produce renewable energy, for each renewable energy source, is calculated. This calculation is based on positive and negative territorial criteria. Finally the potential of the terrain is also added. The tool uses ASCII files as input which are produced using a GIS interface. The tool is set up to be interactive: several parameters and input data can be changed to be able to work with different scenarios. Based on the available data the first preliminary results have been produced. More research is however needed to also take into account for example the demand for energy and heat, the storage of energy and the social and economic effects the energy landscapes will have.