Localising suitable areas for wind power development in Kiruna Municipality. : A spatial multi-criteria decision analysis.

Abstract: Within the last decade, wind power has faced a strong expansion in Sweden, supported by national policies. However, when wind power projects are to be developed, a series of legal difficulties, opposing land-use interests and resistance often arise, hindering their implementation on a local level. To bypass such difficulties, the Swedish government has invited municipalities to localise suitable areas for wind power development in their comprehensive plans. By adopting this proactive approach, different interests and views can be implemented in an early stage of the planning process, possibly reducing the risk of land-use issues and local resistance.The Municipality of Kiruna is currently updating its comprehensive plan and wind power is among the planning issues to be further investigated. Therefore, this thesis aims to combine GIS and multi-criteria decision making to support wind power spatial planning in Kiruna Municipality by exploring environmental, economic and social constraints and criteria under different planning scenariosTherefore, a spatial multi-criteria decision analysis is implemented to promote wind power localisation and at the same time, to prevent possible detrimental consequences. Swedish legislation, guidelines issued by national agencies and wind power planning practices are implemented to delimit areas feasible or unfeasible for wind power development. Then, the localisation process within feasible areas is guided by a set of social, economic and environmental criteria reflecting land-use interests typical of Kiruna Municipality. Weights, steering the relevance of the different criteria in the process, are then developed on the basis of three planning scenarios of future development for the Nordic Arctic.The results of the analysis show that approximately 90% of the territory of Kiruna Municipality is not feasible for wind power development. In particular, low wind speeds and areas of interest for defence are constraints excluding large portions of the municipal territory. Among the feasible areas, it is particularly complex to identify locations which are not located within areas of interest for reindeer herding or national interest for undisturbed mountainous environment and that have an adequate distance from existing electric grids. Nevertheless, the planning scenarios pinpoint suitable locations for wind power development in northeastern Kiruna, in proximity of Karesuando.