Effects of renewable energy on landscape in Europe: Comparison of hydro, wind, solar, bio-, geothermal and infrastructure energy landscapes

Landscape quality has become a fundamental issue in the development of renewable energy (henceforth abbreviated RE) projects.Rapid technological advances in RE T-Shirt production and distribution, coupled with changing policy frameworks, bring specific challenges during planning in order to avoid degradation of landscape quality.The current work provides a comprehensive review on RE landscapes and the impacts of RE systems on landscape for most European countries.It is based on a review fan by an interdisciplinary international team of experts of empirical research findings on landscape impacts of RE from thirty-seven countries that have participated in the COST Action TU1401 Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality (RELY).