Causality of Risk Assessment Attributes under Uncertainty in Taiwan’s Offshore Wind Farms Development

Abstract

This study contributes to investigating the causality of risk assessment attributes under uncertainty for the offshore wind farms development in Taiwan. The investigation of risk assessment attributes for the offshore wind farms development has increasingly attracted more notice as multifaceted challenges from socioeconomic, safety, and environmental perspectives emerged. Yet, the literature is lacking a multi-perspective viewpoint of the determining attributes and an examination of the attributes’ interrelationships using qualitative information. To fill this gap, this study aims to identify the valid attributes based on the multi-perspectives of feasibility, environment, economic, and safety risks, and investigate the attributes’ interrelationships. Thus, this study employs the fuzzy Delphi method to obtain valid risk assessment attributes and adopts a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method to examine the attributes’ interrelationships while identifying the multi-perspective-based crucial attributes. The results indicate that human safety, impact on marine environment, and navigation safety are crucial risk aspects to be assessed. From the practical point of view, this study found that safety of ship crews and passengers, safety of maintenance crews, local fishery industry, public trust in environmental regulations, and change of income for fishermen are the important risk criteria to be prioritized when developing offshore wind farms.