SwitchedOn Australia The game changing tool to protect birds in Australia’s renewable rollout
Sep 10, 2025
Golo Maurer, an ornithologist and Director of Bird Conservation Strategy at BirdLife Australia, discusses the innovative AVISTEP tool poised to transform renewable energy development in Australia. This tool uses extensive bird sighting data to predict the environmental impact of projects like wind and solar farms. Golo emphasizes the tool's potential to safeguard bird populations while promoting responsible energy expansion. He also highlights the importance of collaboration with experts to ensure that renewable infrastructure is built in ecologically safe areas.
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Grid-Based Risk Mapping
- AVI-STEP maps Australia on a 5x5km grid and flags each cell with a traffic-light score for turbines, transmission, distribution and solar.
- The tool overlays bird data, protected areas and vegetation to reveal low- and high-risk sites for infrastructure.
Data Layers Create Composite Scores
- BirdLife combined 20+ million bird records with species models and biological traits to build sensitivity layers.
- Layers stack to produce a composite traffic-light score reflecting collision and population risk.
Biology Shapes Collision Risk
- AVI-STEP factors species anatomy, maneuverability, vision, foraging and life history into sensitivity scoring.
- These biological traits change collision risk and population vulnerability to infrastructure strikes.