Wozep research programme
Wozep research strategy
Wozep focuses on investigating the impact of wind turbines. How does underwater noise affect the behaviour of harbour porpoises? How do rotating rotor blades affect coastal birds and seabirds? And so on. Investigating the impact will allow for more accurate estimates of the number of victims and the impact on populations of vulnerable species. Measurements (for example with radar or GPS) and observations (of things like behaviour, species identification) are made in the field and existing datasets from long-term programmes monitoring birds and marine mammals are used for this purpose. Models have been developed for calculating the effect on the populations of, for example, vulnerable bird species, both for areas where wind farms are currently located and for future scenarios. Important building blocks for these models include the data that Wozep has collected and the knowledge rules it has developed.
On the pages dedicated to birds, bats, marine mammals, fish and ecosystem effects, you can read more about the research that has been done, the results and how they have been used in policy and management.
Wozep research programme
The Wozep Multie-Year programme (pdf, 1 MB) was drawn up in 2016. It sets out the details of the information requirements based on the Wozep objectives. Those requirements have been set out in a multi-year research programme (2016-2023 with an extension until 2030) which is still ongoing. There is an annual assessment of progress, the results and whether new questions have emerged. On that basis, an Annual Plan is drawn up describing the new projects for the following year. This Annual Plan is submitted for approval to the Wozep Steering Committee, which includes the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, in addition to the principal, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, and Rijkswaterstaat. This approach allows Wozep to remain flexible and to work towards the optimal match between the results, the objectives and use. An evaluation (pdf, 513 kB) took place in 2018 to see whether the Multi-Year Programme had been implemented as planned. After five years of Wozep, a new evaluation was carried out in 2021: Wozep midterm evaluation 2021.