Tools and Resources for Addressing Energy Development in the Appalachians
Energy Forecast Map Visualization Tool.
The development of traditional and emerging energy resources is both a great economic driver for the Appalachians as well as a source of landscape change. The Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture, a partnership working to ensure the long-term sustainability of native bird populations that breed in the Appalachians, have been attempting to assess risks to intact forests from extracting energy resources (as well as associated infrastructure) and determine potential effect of land-use changes on bird populations. This partnership is being proactive in their approach to minimize impacts to birds and the landscape.
Rhodes, the LCC’s GIS Analyst and Information Manager, focused her talk on 3 key projects and resources that could benefit the AMJV community in their activities. These included:
- Assessing Future Energy Development across the Appalachians, which uses models that combine data on energy development trends – in coal, wind, and natural gas – and identifies where these may intersect with important natural resources and ecosystem services to give a more comprehensive picture of what potential energy development could look like in the Appalachians;
- Ecosystem Benefits and Risk Online Resources provides information and tools that fully integrate society’s value of ecosystems with future threats to better inform natural resource planning and management;
- Preview of the LCC’s new online learning platform that includes an Energy Forecast Modeling course that walks users through an exercise for using the Energy Forecast Map Visualization Tool and provides case examples for how the tool can be used to assist conservation managers.
Rhodes provided an overview of each of these online tools and resources, highlighting the purpose, functionality, and intended uses or examples of each.
This presentation was part of the AMJV Energy Webinar Series, which seeks to improve knowledge of how energy development and changes in infrastructure are affecting birds in the Appalachians in order to implement solutions to mitigate impacts throughout the region.
