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February 24, 2026 preprint Open access Aachen paper

Data-driven landscape scenicness mapping for continental-scale onshore wind resource assessment

ChemRxiv

DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv.15000356/v1 Full text (OA) OpenAlex

Abstract

Visual impacts on scenic landscapes dominate public opposition to onshore wind turbines. Yet wind resource assessments often overlook landscape scenicness due to limited data availability. This study introduces a scalable machine learning framework for generating continental scenicness layers, trained on crowdsourced scenicness ratings from Great Britain and achieving high predictive performance. The resulting scenicness maps are integrated into an onshore wind resource assessment under three landscape preservation scenarios across 29 European countries. We show that prioritizing scenic landscapes in planning can reduce wind generation potential in certain countries by over 60%. However, it only modestly affects the continental median levelized costs of electricity (57 €/MWh and 54 €/MWh under low and high preservation scenarios), while substantially increasing regional costs in scenic mountainous regions such as the Alps and Norway. These findings demonstrate how data-driven approaches can enable socially aware and large-scale energy system planning.

Authors 5

  1. Ruihong Chen

    ETH Zurich

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering

    ETH Zurich

  2. Tristan Pelser Aachen

    Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

    Affiliation as printed

    Chair for Fuel Cells

    Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH

    Institute of Climate and Energy Systems -Jülich Systems Analysis (ICE

    RWTH Aachen University

  3. Alena Lohrmann

    Reykjavík University · ETH Zurich

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering

    ETH Zurich

    Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, Reykjavik, Iceland, 102

  4. Jann Michael Weinand

    Forschungszentrum Jülich

    Affiliation as printed

    Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH

    Institute of Climate and Energy Systems -Jülich Systems Analysis (ICE

  5. Russell McKenna

    Paul Scherrer Institute · ETH Zurich

    Affiliation as printed

    Centers for Nuclear Engineering and Sciences & Energy and Environment

    Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering

    ETH Zurich

    PSI

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