KNOWING Kickoff Workshop South Westphalia

Municipality of Möhnesee, Mayor Maria Moritz

Challenges
- Acceptance by citizens
- Acceptance by tourists
- Arnsberg Forest in its function as upstream water reservoir for Lake Möhnesee (important drinking water supply for the Ruhr area)
Expectations of KNOWING
- Scientific basics for the damage of the forest ecosystem by erection and operation of wind turbines
- Plausibilization of measures to mitigate the consequential effects on the wind farm area and for compensation in the overall habitat
- Communication assistance and support
- Contribution to KNOWINGReal laboratory Herdringer Forst
- LIZ Landscape Information Center (Local Hub)
- Concrete decision paths

Scientific Research Findings

Rolf Nieder - taking into account investigation results of LANUV (recording of nitrogen problems at intensive monitoring sites) and of Wald und Holz (soil temperature development under different deadwood variants in the Arnsberg forest) - has compiled the relevant scientific research on potential effects of wind turbines on water and temperature regimes, C storage capacity, emissions of CO2 and reactive nitrogen and sulfur compounds, as well as mitigation and compensation measures, and has compiled a list of open research questions (also including avifauna). 

The EU project SUPERB - presented by Catharina Schmidt from Wald und Holz - has compiled a comprehensive list of measures to strengthen the climate resilience of forests. We can adopt this list in KNOWING and add measures for restitution of temporal construction measures for WTs. It would be desirable if SUPERB could develop a focus on "forest edges" to stabilize the forest adjacent to wind farms-within-forests (windbreaks, moisture, shade). 

The BICO2 project - Jens Wöllecke from NABU Naturschutzstation Münsterland - to study the influence of different forestry use intensities on biodiversity and C storage will be presented in a final event at the end of November. There is a desire for a follow-up project together with private forest owners. 
The district of Soest has started a project "sponge forest" and has recorded with a GIS tool all drainage ditches in the Arnsberg forest / sub-area of Soest that have been created in history, which together make up a length of more than 1,000 km. A demo can be viewed for this purpose. With a funding project, the systematic reclosure of these ditches as well as the renaturation of streams is to be tackled. 

According to Anna Marie Gröner of wpd, for each construction of a wind turbine, the project developer proposes compensatory measures to the responsible environmental authority to mitigate the environmental impact. We want to investigate together with project developers on the basis of available before-after data (e.g. satellite data) whether these measures have achieved the intended effect.

Research Questions

- How do the variables (evapo)transpiration, surface runoff and groundwater recharge change in each case on the subareas of an intervention area?
- What is the significance of these changes for the landscape water balance?
- What is the extent of soil-damage compaction caused by the use of heavy machinery on the temporarily impacted areas?
- What is the effect of the total soil damage on the water and material balance?
- What is the effect of soil damage on mycorrhizae on the sub-areas that are not permanently sealed? 
- What are the consequences for the reforested areas and the adjacent forest ecosystem?
- How does the temperature and moisture regime change below the WT, in transition areas and in the wake zone?
- What is the impact of changing local climate conditions on insects, soil animals, soil microflora, ground cover, new plantings, etc.?To what extent do clearing and edge effects cause increased discharges of reactive nitrogen and sulfur?
- To what extent do they concurrently increase the risk of nitrous oxide emissions? (N2O)
- Species protection: to what extent can the further development of shutdown logarithms of anti-collision systems towards regional adaptation help to improve the protection of birds and bats on a larger scale? For bats, this depends very much on species composition and according to seasonal occurrence

Science Measures

- Preparation of a tabular overview of all completed, ongoing and planned field researches known to us (Stefan, Rolf).
- Meeting with WP3 (incl. WP1 and WP2)
- Consideration of the project "Schwammwald" and BICO2
- Deepening of the research started by Rolf on the part of WP1
- Transfer of the "overall model / partial models" into the KNOWING System Dynamics Model 
- Evaluation of satellite data for C- / H2O - analyses in forest regions with WEA
- Modeling of the demonstrator SWF
- Modeling of the Arnsberg forest as a sponge forest (stream courses, floodplains, bogs, natural forest, permanent forest)
- Networking with NRW - colleges, universities and institutions and clarification how and from which side the open research questions of Prof. Dr. Nieder can be taken up
- Discussion: Herdringer Forst as a scientific long-term project? For this purpose further pedological survey of the Herdringer Forest necessary / interesting?

KNOWING ROLE SWF  

UNDERSTAND (Impact Interaction Knowledge Base)

- Compilation and mapping of all projects in the Arnsberg Forest habitat, e.g. in a GIS tool (similar to or in extension of the GIS tool of the Soest district).
- Activation of the Hochsauerlandkreis, respectively the HSK riparian municipalities to complement the GIS tool Schwammwald 
- Preparation of research and modeling for the Herdringer Forst project

MODEL   (Impact Interaction Model Framework)

- Modeling of the interrelationships in the Arnsberg Forest for impact assessment (prognosis).Making the Arnsberg Forest habitat and the climate and forest protection measures in the Local Hub Landscape Information Center LIZ Möhnesee tangible also for the public (societal transformation)

CRITERIA (Climate Mitigation Pathways)

- Creation of a catalog of measures from SUPERB as well as avoidance and supplementary measures Coordination of this catalog with SUPERB

DECISION PROCES (Climate Activation and Empowerment)

Involvement of other stakeholders
- JUWI (project developer)
- Fürstenberg Foundation (owner)
- District Forestry Office Arnsberg-Soest (Forest and Timber) 
- Zweckverband Nature Park Arnsberg Forest (Jens Hoheisel)
- Preparation of the research, impact analyses and measures in a communicative overall package and examination in the political discussion of the municipality of Moehnesee

Mobilization of other STAKEHOLDERS

- JUWI (projector) -  Stefan 
- Foundation Fürstenberg -  Adrian    
- Special purpose association nature park Arnsberger Wald -  Adrian 
- Cities Arnsberg, Sundern, Warstein, Meschede, Rüthen -  Adrian
- Lippeverband -  Adrian
- Reactivation: Ruhrverband (Stefan), LANUV (Rolf), LEE (Adrian)

Communication

- Presentation of KNOWING SWF with focus on Herdringer Forst for communication Möhnesee community (current status in each case - expectation management!)
- Creation of new FLYER 
- Participation in information event Q4
- Networking with SUPERB (Catharina Schmidt) and BWK (Juliane Weber)

JOINT VISION (DRAFT)
With the help of KNOWING we succeed in understanding, modeling and communicating the impacts of wind energy on forest areas in interaction with many individual measures for the regeneration of the climate resilient forest for the entire habitat Arnsberg Forest. With appropriate measures, negative impacts from the construction of wind turbines will be reduced and the long-term impacts on the overall habitat with regard to storage of water and carbon as well as the resilience of the entire ecosystem will be reduced as much as possible. This understanding, supported by the Climate Project Model, helps to objectify the discussion and to accelerate the development of nature-friendly wind energy on forest land.

For further information see: 230823_KNOWING_SWF_Kick-off-Workshop-Minutesl_final_EN.pptx