Ambitious plans for the large-scale deployment of wave and tidal energy are underway to meet carbon reduction targets, with the deployment of 1.6GW of generation planned for the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters (PFOW), and smaller deployments planned off the coast of Wales and Isle of Wight. In parallel, numerous wave and tidal energy technologies are under development by companies ranging from small embryonic SMEs to multinational engineering companies, whilst test sites, including the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) have been established, seabed leases awarded by the Crown Estate, and the deployment of the first, small scale, arrays of devices underway. Amongst this race to develop technology and sites, concerns regarding potential interactions between wave and tidal energy devices/developments and marine mammals, seabirds and fish have emerged. These have formed the basis for the NERC/Defra Understanding How Marine Renewable Device Operations Influences Fine Scale Habitat Use and Behaviour of Marine Vertebrates (RESPONSE) (NE/J004251/1; NE/J000884/1). The study has provided new multi-disciplinary perspectives of the issue, from field studies investigating potential interactions, to the risk management challenges it poses across the wave and tidal sector. The project will directly address the challenges associated with potential marine vertebrate interactions by translating the new emerging evidence and lessons learned from the RESPONSE, FLOWBEC and MREKEP risk and uncertainty study, to inform decision-making on this potentially significant risk to the development of the wave and tidal energy sector. Through direct engagement with a community of stakeholders, incorporating device and site developers, regulators, advisory bodies, NGOs and industry associations, the embedding of this evidence in site scoping, technology design, monitoring, mitigation and consenting processes will be a practical outcome of this work.

The UK is the third largest generator of wind power in Europe, with 584 projects, 4,366 turbines and four of the five largest European wind farms. Conflicts between wind energy generation and bats - animals with high legal protection across Europe - therefore have important implications for the economy and energy security as well as biodiversity. We are currently concluding research that has quantified the scale of collision and disturbance impacts and examined potential predictors of risk. This is the only work in the UK to address this issue at commercial scale wind energy installations. The purpose of the current project is to determine with stakeholders the practical applications of the environmental data and expertise amassed during this extensive and costly research, and to package these with the assistance of users into accessible formats to facilitate more effective management of the environmental impacts of wind energy production. Stakeholders have emphasised to us that evidence-based decision making requires that they not only have access to the overall results of scientific analyses, but to information and guidance on which to base best-practice for future commercial surveys and monitoring. Because of our extensive research, we have available a unique dataset on bat activity and casualty rates at wind turbine sites across the UK, as well as unparalleled experience in practical monitoring techniques: this project will allow these to be shared with end-users. Specific outputs will include species- and region-specific reference ranges for bat activity levels, allowing stakeholders to contextualise and interpret the bat activity levels routinely recorded in surveys conducted by ecological consultants; Geographic Information System (GIS) layers to facilitate evidence-based decision making about cumulative ecological impacts; information on appropriate monitoring techniques; and assistance with understanding the potential consequences of developments for local and national bat populations. The direct beneficiaries will be wind energy developers and operators (industry), professional ecological consultants (service providers), local government ecologists and planning committees (decision makers), and Statutory Nature Conservation Organisations (SNCOs, policy makers). Keywords: environmental impact assessment; wind turbines; bats; ecological data; wind energy Stakeholders: Statutory Nature Conservation Organisations (Natural Resources Wales, Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage) Local Authority Ecologists and Planners (including The Association of Local Government Ecologists) Professional Ecological Consultants (including the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department of Energy and Climate Change Wind energy developers and operators (including all of the major energy suppliers as well as installers of small energy systems) Non-governmental wildlife conservation organisations (e.g. Bat Conservation Trust, The Wildlife Trusts)

Wave and tidal energy devices are subjected to normal everyday loadings and abnormal extreme loadings. Extreme loadings are severe and less frequent. The repetitive loadings arising from wave-device interaction or current-blade-structure interaction are lower and occur very frequently in normal operation. Economic designs that will survive have to withstand, without structural failure, a combination of these types of loading over the design life of the device and its subsystems. Cumulative fatigue damage in the wave or turbulent-current environment could occur earlier than anticipated in the life of wave or tidal current technologies and needs to be better understood to predict wear-out or failure and ensure designs are robust without entailing excessive cost. This work will explore numerically through computer modelling, and physically through preliminary model- and sea-testing, the interaction of tidal and wave devices with their sea that surrounds them, one another, their moorings and the electricity network to understand the cyclic and irregular forces acting and the structural loadings arising, ultimately aiming to reduce fatigue effects and increase reliability.

The wind energy sector is an industry of strategic national importance, which can help secure our energy supplies, reduce our emissions and dependence on imported fossil fuels, and protect our environment. It is an industry on which our clean energy future rests. Despite the positive benefits of wind farms however, there is concern and uncertainty over the possible negative effects wind turbines may have on the environment, particularly on birds. For example, uncertainty remains over collision mortality i.e. the number of birds killed directly through collision with wind turbines. These uncertainties are far from trivial for the industry and have real consequences, potentially delaying wind farm projects and inhibiting the ability of the UK to meet its binding 2020 targets. Three projects in Round 2 of wind farm developments in the UK were delayed by over three years due in part to uncertainties over the assessment of impacts. Therefore better quantification of the uncertainty and variability associated with the estimation of impacts is required. During Environmental Impact Assessments of wind farm developments, bird collision mortality is estimated using a mathematical model which describes the interaction of a bird with a wind turbine and predicts the risks of bird collisions with turbines. There are a limited number of collision risk models in use, not only in the UK but globally. However, it is recognised by many, including industry, statutory nature conservation agencies and academics that there is much room for improvement of these models. For example, collision risk models are deterministic and rarely include variation in the input parameters such as bird density, or bird biometrics which are inherently variable, but instead use average values. Additionally, any uncertainty in these values is not expressed. Adopting a single best value for parameters may reduce complexity and increase the accessibility of results for decision-makers however it can be misleading because it ignores the range of consequences that are plausible. This project aims to i) review current models that are used to predict bird collision mortality caused by wind farm developments, ii) determine statistical methods suited to address any shortcomings of current models and then, using this information, iii) develop an updated model which incorporates variability and uncertainty. Reviewing current models and highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, as well as reviewing methods to incorporate variability and uncertainty will aid the development of a product, a collision risk model, which is fit for purpose. Development of the understanding of uncertainty in the outputs of collision risk models will be a key part of this project, and will be of direct benefit to industry, government advisors and regulators in the assessment and licensing processes for wind farm projects. The involvement of these parties will be vital in steering this project because any revision of a collision risk model has to function to better inform planning decisions for wind farm developments. To ensure that all relevant parties are involved, contribute and ultimately buy-in to the development of a new, updated model, there will be a workshop to discuss issues surrounding current practices to which developers, licensing authorities, statutory nature conservation bodies, academics and others will be invited. Also, to ensure the outputs of this project have impact and are used by the industry, the model and any documents produced will be made freely available and accessible through a dedicated webpage. Wind energy has an important role in meeting energy targets, so there is a clear need to ensure that decisions made through the planning processes use the best available information, data and models. Improved understanding of the risks of collision to birds - a key effect considered in ornithological impact assessments of wind farms - is thus vital.

Coastal hazards pose a significant risk to people, property, and infrastructure worldwide and in the UK. For example, over 1.8 million homes are at risk of coastal flooding and erosion in England alone and coastal flooding is recognized as one of the top two environmental hazards in terms of impact in the 2020 National Risk Register. The occurrence, intensity and impacts of coastal flooding and erosion are projected to increase with climate change and will have major socio-economic consequences. Historically, coastal protection has relied on overwhelming use of hard engineered defence schemes, but adverse effects and high costs of these schemes have driven advocacy of coastal practices that are based on Working with Natural Processes (WWNP). However, future changes in regional sea level, storms, pluvial and fluvial inputs, coastal habitats, and their interrelations lead to significant epistemic uncertainties (due to limited knowledge) about controls on flooding and erosion and limit the implementation of WWNP schemes. Questions remain on how multiple terrestrial and marine drivers of extreme hydrodynamic conditions will combine to control coastal flooding and erosion in the future, on the vulnerability and efficacy of protective services afforded by coastal habitats, and on the performance of WWNP solutions on coasts that already have partial protection by traditional engineered coastal defences. Event-scale coastal flooding and erosion mainly occur in response to synoptic scale meteorological events. These meteorological events can result in a series of individual hazard components to coastal environments, such as storm surges, extreme waves, extreme rainfall, and extreme river flows. However, these hazard components are not independent of each other, and coastal flooding and erosion commonly arise from the collective impact due to interrelated and/or successive hazard components. In other words, coastal flooding and erosion are controlled by multi-hazards. The CHAMFER project will characterise how multi-hazards at the coast control coastal flooding and erosion and determine how these multi-hazards will respond to climate change and coastal management. We will deliver a new community modelling system coupled across terrestrial and marine sectors, numerical simulations of which will be used to support multi-hazard analyses under present and future scenarios. This will be combined with an assessment of the role of coastal habitats resulting in national maps for protective services and vulnerabilities of coastal habitats to climate-driven multi-hazards. We will provide tools to analyse the efficacy of future WWNP schemes. CHAMFER will rely on a multi-scale approach both spatially, by considering UK/GB scales and more local spatial scales, and temporally, by considering responses to meteorological events under long-term climate-related or management-related changes. CHAMFER includes significant elements of co-design with stakeholders and we will work with government departments, public sector organisations, and industry users to inform and support coastal protection and adaptation options.