Nazka combats the NIMBY effect in WIMBY

At the end of last year, Nazka Mapps won a proposal together with 14 partners for a Horizon Europe project concerning the improvement of the public opinion towards windfarms. Of all the renewable energy sectors, wind energy is one of the fastest growing, most mature and even cost efficient. Unfortunately everyone is a supporter of windturbines, but not in their own neighbourhood. Therefore, the consortium vowed to work together to combat this NIMBY effect.

On January 24, it was finally time for the kick-off meeting at the VUB in Brussels. We met all the partners and did the kick-off for the different work packages.

The expertise of Nazka Mapps comes in handy for building the mapp to bring together all the spatial data generated in the project and make this insightful for all the stakeholders (such as policy makers, civilians, researchers, windfarm developers,...).

The modelling results focus on the different kinds of impact of windfarms:

• the physical and ecological (e.g. the effect on migrating birds)
• the socio-economical (e.g. the effect on employment or tourism)
• and also the technical (e.g. which type of windfarm has which effect)

Also the possible trade-offs are not forgotten, by using a systemic approach. Stakeholders will be able to access all this information and give input by means of an interactive forum. This approach will be tested in 4 pilot projects together with a 3D tool to help with the visualisation of future wind parks. By uncovering, acknowledging and remediating the impact, the NIMBY effect will lose its power.

Next to experience with visualising wind datasets, Nazka Mapps also has expertise in making mapps suitable for a diverse audience. Promoting the shift to a more sustainable energy mix fits perfectly in our mission: to focus on the challenges of current and future generations.