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Wind engineers at Hydro Tasmania use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to identify potential wind farm sites.

GIS allows the engineers to overlay different layers of geographic information onto a computer-based map.

The aim of this exercise is for you to use GIS to rate 4 potential wind farm sites based on various rules.

Once you enter the GIS you can see that it allows you to turn on and off various layers of information.

	To 'turn on' a layer you click on the checkbox next to its name in the layer list (under "Visible").
	Once you have selected the layers that you wish to turn on click the Refresh button.

 

For you to see which potential sites are better than others, you will need to use the information given about each of the layers on the left hand side of the screen and use the buttons that are described below.

For example, one of the criteria is that a wind farm site cannot be built within 10 kilometres of a town. To check if a potential site is affected by this rule you will need to do the following:

1. Turn on the Towns layer and refresh the map.

2. Zoom in using the Zoom In Tool so that you can see the site that you wish to check and the closest town nearby it.

3. Use the Measure Tool to measure the distance between the potential site and the nearest town. If the distance is less than 10 kilometres then this site is not a good wind farm site. If it is greater then 10 kilometres then it has passed this rule and you can continue to check its potential using the other rules.

Another rule is that a wind farm cannot be built in a raptor exclusion zone. To check if a potential site is affected by this rule you will need to do the following:

1.   Turn on the Raptor Exclusion Zones layer and refresh the map

2.   If the site you are checking falls within one of the coloured areas then it is not a good wind farm site. If it doesn’t then it has passed this rule and you can continue to check its potential using the other rules.

Buttons

These are the buttons beside the map and what they do.

  Zoom In Tool

Zooms in on the data in your map. You can click on a location to zoom to it, or you can use the tool to drag a box to zoom in on a particular area.

  Zoom Out Tool

Zooms out on the data in your map, centred on the position you click or area you define with the mouse.

  Full Extent

Zooms to the full extent of the data in your map.

  Go Back To Previous Extent

Goes back to the previous extent you were viewing of the data in the map.

  Pan Tool

Lets you pan the data in your map by dragging the display in any direction with the mouse. Move the cursor anywhere, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the display in any direction.

  Identify Features Tool

Use this tool to click on a geographic feature and get its attributes. Before using Identify on a view, click on the radio button next to the theme in the Layer List (under Active) that contains the feature you wish to identify, to make the theme active. For example if you wished to find the attributes of one of the roads make the roads theme active by selecting the radio button next to it.

Once you have made a theme active, choose the Identify tool and then click on the feature in the view and the attributes for the feature that you clicked on will be displayed in the box below the map.

   Measure Tool

Lets you measure distances on the map. As you draw a line with this tool, the length of the line is displayed at the top of the map. You can draw a line with multiple segments. Click once to start a new segment and double click to finish.

  Clear Measurements

Clears the measurement lines from the map.

  OK, I'm ready to start!