Integrating ecology with everything else: A tool for evaluating hydrokinetic project alternatives

Hydrokinetic projects can be characterized by numerous project and site attributes; this complexity renders the comparison of alternatives challenging. How do you simultaneously consider impacts on key species, economics of energy production, sensitive environmental features, permitting requirements, and interactions with the human community? We are developing a planning tool, adapted from an analytical fisheries approach, that considers diverse project attributes, allows for uncertainty or disagreement, and provides visual output graphics that are readily understood by layman and expert alike. The result provides an objective means of comparing project sites and/or hydrokinetic technologies, measures uncertainty, and ranks project attributes according to their impact on model outcome. Selecting attributes, defining rating ranges, and assigning the rating scores are the most challenging aspects of this tool; we suggest that attribute and rating selection be completed in collaboration with stakeholders. While siting a hydrokinetic project will never be easy, this tool is distinctive for its collaborative approach, ability to handle uncertainty, transparency, and comparative lack of dependence on quantitative information. This talk will describe the methodology, which we named “Raptools.” We will discuss real-world applications to a marine hydrokinetic project and a freshwater alternative uses project, and discuss Raptools’ advantages and limitations.