Research Focus Area : Mapping of Offshore Areas
As is mandated in the Virginia Energy Plan, the research focus for the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium is on offshore winds, waves and marine biomass. Scientists, engineers and geographers at James Madison University, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech - Advanced Research Institute will work together to gather data pertinent to decision makers and create an interactive online GIS mapping tool for public use. James Madison University has taken a leading role in these mapping efforts.
The objective of this project is to map the offshore wind energy resource off Virginia’s coast, as well as identifying excluded areas to avoid potential conflicts with other ocean users, including U.S. Navy training and exercise areas, U.S. Coast Guard designated shipping lanes, commercial fishing grounds, and other potentially incompatible uses (sand and gravel mining, dredge spoil disposal, archeological and other scientific research sites, etc.). We will also prepare GIS layers that show the distribution of offshore benthic biological communities, marine mammal sightings, and avian habitats (migratory shorebird flyways and pelagic seabird counts). These data will be used in the feasibility study and later by stakeholders as an online tool to understand the impacts of offshore wind farms on Virginia’s coastal and offshore environment and coastal industry.
Research Members
| Jonathan Miles, JMU | Wind Measurements | milesjj@jmu.edu |
| Larry Atkinson, ODU | Climantology of Coastal Waters | latkinso@odu.edu |
| Jose Luis Blanco, ODU | Offshore Wind and Waves | jlblanco@odu.edu |
| George Hagerman, VT | hagerman@vt.edu | |
| Remy Luerssen,JMU | Mapping | luerssrm@jmu.edu |
| Matthew Unger, VT | matthew.unger@vt.edu | |
| James Wilson, JMU | wilsonjw@jmu.edu |
