A GIS-based interactive web decision support system for planning wind farms in Tuscany (Italy)

In the framework of regional renewable energy policies, starting from 2008 the Tuscany Regional Authority promoted the “WIND-GIS” project aimed at assessing the large-scale wind potential of Tuscany region, Italy. This goal was achieved by developing an integrated Geographic Information System (GIS) based decision support system (DSS), compliant with Directive 2007/2/EC of European Commission (EC), which was designed to help public operators in the preliminary location of sites eligible for wind harness. To make the system an actually operative tool, it was conceived as a web-oriented interactive system that the public operators may freely access. The DSS was developed by using the MapServer open-source web-GIS application. Furthermore, the “p.mapper” front-end application developed in JavaScript and PHP/Mapscript was used, which enables a user-friendly interface to MapServer to be performed.