Area potentials

This module performs geospatial analyses to determine the available land area for specific technologies, on a by-pixel basis and aggregated to given geographic boundaries.

About

This is a modular snakemake workflow created as part of the Modelblocks project. It can be imported directly into any snakemake workflow.

For more information, please consult the Modelblocks documentation, the integration example, and the snakemake documentation.

Overview

Data processing steps:

• Geospatial input data (vector and raster) are acquired. This is automatic for most data, but the following data need to be manually supplied:
  • Geographic boundaries in the parquet format
  • WDPA protected areas database from https://www.protectedplanet.net/ in GeoDB format (choose 'File Geodatabase' when downloading).
• For the extent of the provided boundaries, the input data are reprojected and rasterised to the resolution of the land cover data (GlobCover), and merged into a single dataset for further processing.
• Based on the supplied configuration, the land-use analysis is done for each defined technology.
• Results can be reported on a per-geography and per-technology basis, as pixel surface area values (TIFF files), images for reporting purposes (PNG files), and also as a summary report with per-region capacities (CSV and HTML files)

See below for the data sources.

Configuration

Please consult the configuration README and the configuration example for a general overview on the configuration options of this module.

In the configuration, you can define any number of techs, and for each of them, specify the initial_area, continuous_layers, and binary_layers.

By example, here is a pv_rooftop tech. We use the settlement_area, which is the settlement area in m² in each pixel, as the initial area from which the further analysis proceeds. In continuous_layers, we use the settlement_share, which is the share (0-1) of area covered by settlement, and exclude pixels with less than 0.01 settlement share while assuming that of those pixels not excluded by that, 0.8 (80%) of the settled area can be used for rooftop PV. Finally, in the binary_layers, we include all land use types except NOT_SUITABLE (since the main selection is done via the settlement_share). This means that, for example, FOREST pixels with a settlement_area > 0 can be included.

pv_rooftop:
  initial_area: settlement_area
  continuous_layers:
    settlement_share:
      min: 0.01
      max: 1
      share: 0.8
  binary_layers:
    regions_maritime: 0
    regions_land: 1
    protected: 0
    landcover_FARM: 1
    landcover_FOREST: 1
    landcover_URBAN: 1
    landcover_OTHER: 1
    landcover_NOT_SUITABLE: 0
    landcover_WATER: 0

Here is a wind_offshore example. We start with the pixel_area, the total surface area in m² for each pixel. We include pixels with a slope up to and including 20 degrees, and exclude pixels with a settlement share above 0.01. Furthermore, we include only land areas (regions_land: 1 and regions_maritime: 0) and completely exclude some areas like protected areas or urban areas (protected: 0, landcover_URBAN: 0), while including only a fraction of other areas (e.g. if a pixel is considered farmland, only 20% of its surface is available: landcover_FARM: 0.2).

wind_onshore:
  initial_area: pixel_area
  continuous_layers:
    slope:
    min: 0
    max: 20
    settlement_share:
    min: 0
    max: 0.01
  binary_layers:
    regions_maritime: 0
    regions_land: 1
    protected: 0
    landcover_FARM: 0.2
    landcover_FOREST: 0.05
    landcover_URBAN: 0
    landcover_OTHER: 0.3
    landcover_NOT_SUITABLE: 0
    landcover_WATER: 0

Input / output structure

Please consult the interface file for more information.

Development

We use pixi as our package manager for development. Once installed, run the following to clone this repository and install all dependencies.

git clone git@github.com:modelblocks-org/module_area_potentials.git
cd module_area_potentials
pixi install --all

For testing, simply run:

pixi run test-integration

To test a minimal example of a workflow using this module:

pixi shell    # activate this project's environment
cd tests/integration/  # navigate to the integration example
snakemake --use-conda --cores 2  # run the workflow!

References

This module is based on the following research and datasets:

• GEDTM30 for slope
  • License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• GlobCover land cover data
  • License: "You may use the GlobCover land cover map for educational and/or scientific purposes, without any fee on the condition that you credit ESA and the Université Catholique de Louvain as the source of the GlobCover products."
• GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) 15 arc-second data
  • License: "The GEBCO Grid is placed in the public domain and may be used free of charge. [...] Users must: Acknowledge the source of The GEBCO Grid. A suitable form of attribution is given in the documentation that accompanies The GEBCO Grid."
• GHSL (Global Human Settlement Layer) built-up surface data (R2023, GHS-BUILT-S, 100m resolution)
  • License: "The GHSL has been produced by the EC JRC as open and free data. Reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged."
• WDPA (World Database on Protected Areas)
  • License: Non-commercial allowed. Citation: "UNEP-WCMC and IUCN (2025), Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM) [Online], June 2025, Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net."