Landscape Architecture Master's Projects

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Browsing Landscape Architecture Master's Projects by Subject "Alternative Future Method"

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    A Landscape Approach to the Conflicts of Greens: Planning for Energy and Wetland Land-Use Growth in Southwestern Taiwan's Coastal Landscape in a Climate-Changing Era
    (2021-03-24) Lien, William Weiti
    Taiwan’s national plan to expand solar energy by 2025, including rooftop photovoltaics and ground-level photovoltaics, triggered numerous public debate and land-use conflicts since Taiwan’s 2016 presidential election. In particular, the wetlands along the southwest coast have been attracting many solar farms because of their excellent solar radiation potentials as former saltpans; however, this abundant wetland ecosystem also supports many endangered migratory bird species, which has been leading to the conflicts of “Greens” between solar energy and critical habitats. This project developed alternative future scenarios to assess the solar generation potential and other land uses of the southwest coastal landscape for the 40 years’ timeframe from now to 2060. Based on the scenario guide input from the experts, solar zoning overlay and developmental rights, plans for two different future scenarios that give priority on climate adaptation and photovoltaic expansion, respectively. These scenarios project areas for solar energy development considering their priority in relation to flooding conditions, ecological conservation, and land-use developmental strategies. Future scenarios are evaluated according to its land area and associated performance of flood mitigation, ecological conservation, energy generation, and land-use efficiency. Findings show that the total solar developmental rights of the expansion scenarios grow slightly (13.57GWc in 2040 and 15.03GWc in 2060), while the CO2e emission avoided dropped from 4424 kilo-ton to 3796 kilo-ton CO2e. Adaptation plans have a constant growth of solar developmental rights (7.97 GWc in 2040 and 15.42 GWc in 2060), while CO2e emission avoided grows 2486 kilo-ton to 4464 kilo-ton. Although the expansion plan saves more carbon emission in 2040, the adaptation plans are more efficient in land-use, impacting less agricultural land and wetland than expansion scenarios in both 2040 and 2060 while saving compatible carbon emission. This indicates that adaptation planning is more a systematic approach that brings multiple benefits over photovoltaic expansion planning in the southwest coastal Taiwan context.