Wen-Chieh Liu, a master’s student in the Land Surveying and Geographic Information Division of the Department of Land Economics, received the Excellence Award in the Master’s Thesis category at the 2021 SDGs Academic Paper Award organized by the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy and the CTCI Education Foundation. His thesis, titled “Risk Assessment of Natural Hazards for Offshore Wind Farm Siting in Western Taiwan Waters,” stood out among 146 master’s and doctoral theses submitted from 47 universities.

The competition focused on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), encouraging interdisciplinary discussions across the fields of environment, economy, and society among industry, government, academia, and research sectors.

Green energy is a key focus for countries worldwide, and the Taiwan Strait is recognized as a prime site for wind power development. However, Taiwan's unique environmental conditions—such as earthquakes and typhoons—pose significant challenges to offshore wind turbines and must be factored into risk assessments. Under the guidance of Professor Fang-Hsi Ning, Liu applied spatial information technologies and big data analytics to analyze site selection principles, environmental assessments, shipping routes, and military exclusion zones.

He further deconstructed wind turbine systems to identify the five components with the highest failure rates and selected four extreme weather conditions relevant to Taiwan’s offshore environment to build a risk assessment model for offshore wind farms in western Taiwan waters.

Professor Chen-Yi Sun, Chair of the Department of Land Economics, emphasized that sustainable development is a vital element of human progress. Leveraging surveying and spatial analysis technologies to assist the government in developing green energy is a mission NCCU proudly undertakes. Liu’s award-winning thesis exemplifies the university’s commitment to University Social Responsibility (USR), and the entire department celebrates this achievement.

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Original Source: NCCU Campus News