Engaging the Regulatory Community to Aid Environmental Consenting/Permitting Processes for Marine Renewable Energy

Regulators involved in consenting/permitting marine renewable energy (MRE) have faced multiple challenges due to relatively new, unfamiliar technologies and uncertainty surrounding potential environmental impacts. This has resulted in slow progress for the MRE industry, including long consenting timeframes and extensive and expensive monitoring requirements, which increase financial risk for investors. OES-Environmental has surveyed regulators internationally to understand their key knowledge gaps and perspectives to support the development of the MRE industry. From the results of these surveys a data transferability process and a risk retirement pathway have been developed to assess consenting and monitoring requirements in proportion to risk. A tool for discovering existing data sets by using an online matrix has been developed, along with training materials, regulatory guidance documents, and a strategic outreach plan to engage regulators and advisers. his engagement and the application of these products should lead to a better understanding of the environmental effects of marine energy, and more efficient consenting processes

039— Gender, Partner, and Task in 7-Year-Olds’ Assertive and Affiliative Language with Siblings and Friends

As part of a longitudinal study following sibling and friend interactions from early childhood through adolescence, we focused on the use of assertive and affiliative language by 7-year-olds during play with siblings and friends. Children were taped during free-play, board game, and construction tasks with a sibling and a same-age friend. Contrary to results of past research, task and interaction partner mattered more than gender in girls’ and boys’ use of assertive and affiliative language

Providing modeling tools on extreme events of climate change to Puget Sound managers

As climate change becomes a reality for the management of Puget Sound, water resource and fisheries managers should consider incorporating predictions and outcomes of future climate drivers into their long-range plans and daily operations. Modeling tools that focus on climate impacts and predictions show that extreme events are more often responsible for large impacts than the long-term press of climate change. Working with water resource and fisheries managers in the Dungeness and Skagit watersheds, this project uses outputs of existing climate and estuarine models to define thresholds and metrics associated with extreme climate-driven events that are of importance to the resource managers. Managers from the Dungeness and Skagit basins were brought together to assist with defining information needs for sustainable fish habitat and human water uses. The resource managers participating in the project include municipal waste water treatment operators and planners, fisheries managers, agricultural practitioners and conservation district staff, flood control specialists, and others. The information needs identified by the planners, based on the climate model outputs, include better predictions for low stream flows, stream temperature, extent of salinity intrusion into tidal rivers, and timing of extreme events that fall outside the historical norm. The project is developing a decision-support system to meet these needs. The metrics used to drive the decision-support system are derived from model outputs, driven by resource management needs. The information needs, metrics derived from existing models, and the draft decision-support system will be presented. The research team also seeks to use the project to define improved communication pathways between the scientific community and local managers

Marine Spatial Planning in Washington: A Spatial and Temporal Assessment of Current Uses and Potential Conflict

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015As humanity’s capacity for developing new ways to extract and use resources proliferates, so does its use of ocean space and demand for ocean resources by an ever-growing pool of users. Anticipating disputes from this growth, Washington State initiated the process of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) to protect existing uses by minimizing conflicts between current and future uses – most notably renewable energy – along Washington’s coastline. As part of this process, Washington State is currently assessing conflicts between existing and future marine uses, yet no baseline study has assessed the intensity of the current level of spatial and temporal use conflict between current marine users. This paper uses spatial, temporal, and use-intensity data for 27 major marine uses to quantify potential conflict and highlight high- and low-intensity areas within Washington’s MSP study area. A novel Marine Conflict Index (MCI), calculated by combining the degree of spatial and temporal overlap between pairs of uses and accounting for their intensities, is used to evaluate pairwise potential conflicts between uses. The spatial extent of uses varies widely throughout the designated MSP study area. 38 pairs of uses, about 10% of the total, did not overlap spatially and therefore are likely compatible with one another. Temporally the number of uses peaks in July and August and falls to a low during January and February. The MCI identified three important user groups with a substantial degree of potential conflict: commercial fishing with commercial fishing, commercial fishing with Tribal usual and accustomed fishing areas, and commercial fishing with shipping. A cumulative intensity analysis found that medium- to high-intensity use characterized much of the MSP study area, whereas low-intensity use characterized Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay, and the Northwestern corner of the MSP study area. By ground truthing results with external evidence of actual conflict, three cases highlight how MCI scores can represent potential conflict to understand compatibilities and actual conflict for marine managers. This report is the first representative use analysis on Washington’s existing marine uses that includes spatial, temporal, and intensity factors, providing a crucial first look at ongoing and potential conflicts between marine uses. These results are intended to inform the Washington MSP process to meet one of its core goals of protecting and preserving existing uses while planning for future uses. Beyond Washington, this study provides a template for examining potential use conflicts that incorporates space, time, and intensity and is applicable for any marine planning process

Risk Retirement—Decreasing Uncertainty and Informing Consenting Processes for Marine Renewable Energy Development

Marine renewable energy (MRE) is under development in many coastal nations, adding to the portfolio of low carbon energy sources that power national electricity grids as well as off-grid uses in isolated areas and at sea. Progress in establishing the MRE industry, largely wave and tidal energy, has been slowed in part due to uncertainty about environmental risks of these devices, including harm to marine animals and habitats, and the associated concerns of regulators and stakeholders. A process for risk retirement was developed to organize and apply knowledge in a strategic manner that considered whether specific environmental effects are likely to cause harm. The risk retirement process was tested against two key MRE stressors: effects of underwater noise from operational MRE devices on marine animals, and effects of electromagnetic fields from MRE electrical export cables on marine animals. The effects of installation of MRE devices were not accounted for in this analysis. Applying the risk retirement process could decrease the need for costly investigations of each potential effect at every new MRE project site and help move the industry beyond current barriers