GIS in the Danish Green Tripartite

From desk to excavator

Abstract

The Danish Green Tripartite Agreement must, in record time, result in a historic land-use transition. The first step is to prepare transition plans, one of the goals of which is to reduce nitrogen emissions to our coastal areas. In the catchment area of the Limfjord alone, the first version of the transition plan shows that approx. 80,000 hectares of land must be converted into wetland and lowland projects to meet the reduction requirement of 2,804 tonnes of nitrogen to the Limfjord.

The task can be described as a massive reconfiguration of the Danish landscape. Such a transformation must therefore be carried out intelligently – taking into account nature, agriculture, resources, economy, etc.

The author therefore points to three core areas in the current process that could benefit from being improved:

1. project area designation should be systematized and standardized so that all potential areas are identified,

2. project design should be made more robust, e.g. through the use of buffer areas, and

3. project implementation should be carried out more efficiently.

For this reason, the secretariat of the Limfjord Council has carried out a GIS analysis identifying suitable areas for conversion, and has also developed additional tools to carry out the task more efficiently in the field, including the development of 3D models in GIS that can be loaded directly into excavators.