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Considerable pressure is placed on wind power in Sweden due to the country’s goal of generating 100 % of its electricity from fossil free resources. The aim was to develop the REWIND methodological framework to support wind power planning, built on spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA). In addition, the purpose was to develop a conflict score as a novel component of this framework, for handling goal conflicts. This framework includes the scoping, design and evaluation stages. It was applied in a case study of Västernorrland County with extensive involvement of stakeholders throughout the process. The conflict score allows a separate analysis of trade-offs between factors, highlighting potential conflicts across the landscape to increase transparency. Thus, users are allowed to decide on a threshold on how much conflict among factors should be allowed for areas to qualify as planning alternatives. Critical issues that will need further attention concern quality and availability of data, creation of representative spatial indicators for the factors, weighting methods, and uncertainty analysis. The REWIND framework is open-ended and allows for further development to provide planning support that gives more control of factors and conflicts to be acceptable in real-world planning. Capacity building involving stakeholders in the design of planning alternatives are crucial. In Sweden, it can promote a more proactive planning process in the municipalities, supported by the regional actors, leading to a more predictable permitting process for developers. This will be useful for inclusive wind power planning in any country, since it is applicable on different scales., QC 20231129

A transition to a sustainable energy system is urgent due to climate change, on global level and in Sweden. For this transition, wind power plays an important role. According to Swedens national strategy for wind power, the County Administrative Boards were suggested to, in close collaboration with the municipalities, derive expected shares of wind power in order to reach the goal of 100 TWh wind power to year 2040. Simultaneously, wind power can entail social and ecological impacts, among these landscape impacts, noise and flickering shadows, which can affect residential areas, cultural values and recreation. Also reindeer husbandry can be affected. Ecological impacts can be habitat loss and fragmentation as well as collisions with birds and bats, impacting on biological diversity. Wind power development can also create jobs and thus contribute to local and regional economy. In order to develop useful planning support for wind power planning, the current planning practice and permitting process needs to be investigated concerning which aspects of sustainability that are taken into account, factors that are used, and trade-offs that are made between sustainability goals. In addition, planning support tools need to be developed, that can integrate different sustainability goals and work as a dialogue tool in the planning process. A methodology that can be useful in this context is Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis (SMCA). There are though several challenges associated with using SMCA in real-world planning contexts, where further method development and adaption is needed to increase its applicability. The overall aim of the project “Regional planning support for wind power” (REWIND) was to investigate wind power planning and methods for planning support, to find opportunities for development, where the regional level plays an greater role, providing competence, data, knowledge and coordination. In this way, suggestions can be made on how regional support for wind power, QC 20231122

Land use and land cover largely determine the ecosystem functions that can occur, where they occur, and the organisms that enable those. The composition and configuration patterns of land use and land cover will impact urban biodiversity; therefore how we recognize and understand those patterns is relevant towards planning to enhance biodiversity in urban ecosystems. This chapter addresses the past, present, and future of land use and land cover in urban areas by covering three main sections: The history of land use/land cover in urban areas, how biodiversity connects to land use/land cover under a landscape ecology framework, and how planning for sustainability and fulfilment of sustainable development goals can be done by addressing urban biodiversity at a landscape scale. Through concepts, examples, and tools, we expect readers to become immersed in the importance of land use/land cover configuration and composition for urban biodiversity and related ecological processes., QC 20231122

An ideal form of smart city planning would focus on the availability of urban amenities that can meet the basic needs of a resident's material life, civil connections, and humanistic spirit. Previous studies have concentrated on analyzing the spatial distribution of urban services, with less attention on their contribution as local urban amenities. In this study, we propose a spatial dynamic modeling approach based on urban amenities using social media data from Google Place API to provide locational information on potential resident interactions. We use a representative region in Europe (Stockholm County, SE) to simulate and project urban development in the region until 2050. Our circular conceptual framework of spatial information and feedback supports decision-makers in testing possible urban planning scenarios that align with the vision of a smart city. Simulation results reveal the interplay between human-land interactions on a specific spatial-temporal scale, and we analyze scenario outcomes in relation to commercial and residential land uses. Overall, our study provides a new perspective on human-social behavior-driven urban development, through a smart, spatial dynamic model as a planning support system that can enhance realism, and ultimately help realize planned development objectives in the region., QC 20231009

Sweden aims to achieve 100% renewable electricity by year 2040 with a major share expectation from wind. In this context, the national strategy developed for wind power development estimates expected shares from each County. With this increased expectations from each county, Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis (SMCA) is used as a tool to integrate contributing and conflicting criteria that influence wind energy planning to find sustainable solutions. A majority of studies accommodating larger number of criteria uses Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) or OWA to solve wind farm siting problems. By this, weights obtained from the stake-holders indicating importance of the criteria are used to allow trade-off between criteria to reach a negotiated decision when there are areas not available as in an ideal scenario. Through this opinions of stakeholders from diverse expertise are thus meant to be incorporated in a transparent and democratic way. However, these trade-off may disguise conflicts which need to be handled in a controlled way. The REWIND project aims to develop a framework and GIS tools to conduct SMCA for sustainable wind power planning. The study also addresses planning issues that arises when following the standard approach and ways to handle it. Two case studies are included in this project with the collaboration of Västernorrland and Västra Götaland Counties. The methodology includes selection of criteria and transformation into a uniform suitability scale. These factors are aggregated through a conflict score, to prevent high trade-offs in later stages. Secondly, the importance of one factor over the other is obtained from stake-holders through some weighting method. In general, when the number of factors are more than 9, clustering into groups in hierarchical structure (planning tree) is carried out to calculate weights. The basis for the groups varies and the most common way of clustering is based on the three pillars of sustainability. This not only, QC 20220429

In the referenced article, Engström R, et al. (2018), the authors would like to report a calculation error. Correcting this error does not alter any of the overarching results or conclusions of the article, but changes the results in the original Table 3 and Figure 3. Two typographical errors were also found in the main article, and are corrected here. The supplementary material has also been updated to reflect these corrections., QC 20230612

The first mile/last mile (FM/LM) problem in public transport refers to the spatial accessibility of public transport and is the most important factor determining whether an individual will choose public transport. The FM/LM problem in Stockholm County, Sweden, was evaluated using a Geographic Information System estimating distances to public transport for the years 2019 and 2035. Overall, the population in Stockholm County, have good access to public transport. However, access varies with abilities, with elderly having 50 percent and elderly impaired 15 percent of their area within walking distance to public transport compared with the average citizen. Planned developments can provide good access to public transport, with extensive improvements for the elderly. However, inadequate planning for population increase will likely decrease the perceived public transport accessibility. Apartments and commercial buildings in the study area have high access to public transport. Elderly people have good access within city and regional centers, while access could be improved in other areas. Inclusion of FM/LM in the planning support system used in Stockholm could help mitigate FM/LM problems and extend access to public transport to all people of different abilities. This is vital in creating sustainable mobility networks and achieving sustainable development in smart cities., QC 20220531

With the publication of the European Green Deal, the European Union has committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The envisaged reductions of direct greenhouse gases emissions are seen as technically feasible, but if a wrong path is pursued, significant unintended impacts across borders, sectors, societies and ecosystems may follow. Without the insights gained from an impact assessment framework reaching beyond the techno-economic perspective, the pursuit of direct emission reductions may lead to counterproductive outcomes in the long run. We discuss the opportunities and challenges related to the creation and use of an integrated assessment framework built to inform the European Commission on the path to decarbonisation. The framework is peculiar in that it goes beyond existing ones in its scope, depth and cross-scale coverage, by use of numerous specialised models and case studies. We find challenges of consistency that can be overcome by linking modelling tools iteratively in some cases, harmonising modelling assumptions in others, comparing model outputs in others. We find the highest added value of the framework in additional insights it provides on the technical feasibility of decarbonisation pathways, on vulnerability aspects and on unintended environmental and health impacts on national and sub-national scale., QC 20220831, REEEM

Landscape approaches are important for planning of urban sprawl in peri-urban landscapes, continuously emerging in many metropolitan regions. In the case of Stockholm Region, land-take and incremental urbanisation is a continouous process, while the regional development plan has ambitions to steer the overall development in a sustainable direction. This plan contains a green infrastructure effort building on a set of green wedges, mainly serving as support to the needs of the city and suburbs and their citizens. This initiative differ from the later green infrastructure action plan provided by the county administrative board, related to the EU biodiversity strategy and guidelines. The latter has a different approach, mainly targeting biodiversity goals as well as ecosystem services. These approaches differ from each other in several ways while both have unclear roles when it comes to municipal planning on different levels. Furthermore, the municipalities have their own initiatives when it comes to green infrastructure and nature-based solutions and it is not clear how the different planning tiers are linked to each other, to planning and management, and to multifunctional landscapes. The aim of the REPLAN project is to investigate how the different green infrastructure initiatives are linked to planning, to each other on different scales, and whether they can serve multi-functional landscapes when it comes to biodiversity and different ecosystem services. The REPLAN project involves stakeholders and practitioners on different planning levels for co-producing knowledge, methods and strategies for green infrastructure and nature-based solutions to serve as tools for sustainable transition of metropolitan areas and their peri-urban landscapes., QCR 20220819

Urban planning is assumed to play an important role in developing nature-based solutions (NBS). To explore how NBS is addressed in urban development, municipal planning practices are analyzed based on three case studies in the Stockholm region, Sweden. Through focus group discussions, interviews and document studies, the planning and implementation of NBS and their intended contribution to regional green infrastructure (GI) and social and ecological qualities are investigated. The results show that the planning and design of urban green spaces engages the local community. Moreover, different conceptual frameworks are used to strengthen an ecological perspective and nurture expected outcomes, in particular ecosystem services and GI. Through competence development and collaborative approaches, the co-creation of innovative solutions for public and private green spaces is promoted. However, institutional conditions, e.g. legal frameworks and landownership shape the planning process and can challenge the ability to enhance social and ecological qualities. An assessment of the planning processes indicates a strong focus on ecosystem services and local GI, while the potential to contribute to regional GI differs widely between cases. The study concludes that a knowledge-driven and integrative planning process can foster the potential of NBS for green and sustainable cities.

Urban planning is assumed to play an important role in developing nature-based solutions (NBS). To explore how NBS is addressed in urban development, municipal planning practices are analyzed based on three case studies in the Stockholm region of Sweden. Through focus group discussions, interviews and document studies, the planning and implementation of NBS and their intended contribution to regional green infrastructure (GI) and social and ecological qualities are investigated. The results show that the planning and design of urban green spaces engages the local community. Moreover, different conceptual frameworks are used to strengthen an ecological perspective and nurture expected outcomes, in particular ecosystem services and GI. Through competence development and collaborative approaches, the co-creation of innovative solutions for public and private green spaces is promoted. However, institutional conditions, e.g., legal frameworks and landownership shape the planning process and can challenge the ability to enhance social and ecological qualities. An assessment of the planning processes indicates a strong focus on ecosystem services and local GI, while the potential to contribute to regional GI differs widely between cases. The study concludes that a knowledge-driven and integrative planning process can foster the potential of NBS for green and sustainable cities., QC 20211011

Wind energy plays a vital role to meet growing energy needs and to replace non-renewable energy sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sweden has set the goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2040 with a major share coming from wind energy. In this context, Sweden has a national strategy for sustainable wind power development, with suggested development shares for each region. However, wind energy development also faces a multitude of ecological and societal impacts that needs consideration. Therefore, wind power planning face major challenges and there is a need for systematic planning support, integrating scientific knowledge and stakeholder valuation. The REWIND project aims to develop GIS-based methods based on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) for sustainable wind power planning. In the case study of the County of Västernorrland, stakeholders are engaged in the main MCA steps, the design step with factor selection, treatment and aggregation, as well as weighting, and the evaluation step. Preparing this, to gain credibility, we analyse not only scientific literature but also existing planning documents and legal judgments in order to find relevant factors and their treatment and valuation. For the MCA process, we built the REWIND–GIS toolbox in Python for ArcGIS where factor parameters can be easily altered and conflicts in terms of different criteria can be aggregated and scrutinized. Through this a wide array of uncertainties can be tested, such as graded safety distances or conflict areas in varying degrees. Weights of factors from stakeholders are integrated into the model to arrive at different scenarios for suitable sites which are evaluated. The evaluation and ranking of alternatives can then use the original factors, weights and conflicts while adding also new emerging factors, spatial or non-spatial. In this stage different methods of evaluation are also compared and tested. Through the systematic and transparent approach, planners have various options, QC 20211102

Wind power is one of the renewable energy solutions to meet the challenges of climate change. However, it comes with potential conflicts with other sustainability goals, such as biodiversity. These need to be addressed in regional wind power planning, taking multiple sustainability aspects into account. This project aims to develop methods and the related Rewind-GIS tool for integrating biodiversity in wind power planning on regional level, targeting to meet multiple sustainability goals and to support municipal planning. The REWIND-GIS tool is based on spatial multi-criteria analysis methods to find and evaluate suitable areas for wind farm development. In cooperation with stakeholders, we integrate factors representing wind resources with biodiversity, with subfactors representing sensitive birds, forest and wetland ecosystems, as well as social and other main planning factors. After aggregating and weighing the factors in cooperation with stakeholders, we designed scenarios using opportunistic and defensive approaches. Finally a set of sites were selected for evaluation regarding potential energy output and suitability from wind power developer, social and biodiversity perspectives. In this way, synergies and trade-offs could be quantified and visualised, and main conflicting factors could be localised and discussed during the process. The methodology and the Rewind-GIS tool has potential to be useful for transparent and strategic landscape planning on regional and municipal scales., QC 20210608