A saliency mapping approach to understanding the visual impact of wind and solar infrastructure in amenity landscapes

IF 1.8 4区社会学 Q3 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal Pub Date : 2023-02-01 DOI:10.1080/14615517.2023.2169460

Mehrnoosh Mohammadi, Yan Chen, H. T. Rahman, K. Sherren

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shifts from fossil fuels toward renewable energy (RE) introduce profound changes to landscapes, including visual impacts that are often investigated during environmental and social impact assessment. Moreover, RE transitions are among many visual changes happening in rural areas that are increasingly serving amenity functions and becoming destinations for wide ranges of users. This diversity introduces complexities during infrastructure siting discussions. Emerging grape and wine production landscapes in Canada serve amenity and production purposes, and this study was designed to understand the impacts of RE development using case studies of solar panels and wind turbines in two vineyard landscapes in Ontario (ON) and British Columbia (BC). We applied novel mixed methods, including content analysis and saliency-based visual impact analysis, to textual and image-based representations posted on Instagram of those vineyards. In this case, the addition of low-density RE infrastructures did not seem to disturb the vineyard experience. The technique presented can be applied in a wide range of infrastructure siting contexts, both before and after construction, but requires additional research and calibration.

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一种显著性映射方法，用于理解风能和太阳能基础设施对舒适景观的视觉影响

摘要从化石燃料向可再生能源的转变给景观带来了深刻的变化，包括环境和社会影响评估中经常调查的视觉影响。此外，可再生能源转型是农村地区发生的许多视觉变化之一，这些变化越来越多地提供便利设施功能，并成为广大用户的目的地。这种多样性在基础设施选址讨论中引入了复杂性。加拿大新兴的葡萄和葡萄酒生产景观为舒适和生产服务，本研究旨在通过对安大略省（ON）和不列颠哥伦比亚省（BC）两个葡萄园景观的太阳能电池板和风力涡轮机的案例研究，了解可再生能源开发的影响。我们将新颖的混合方法，包括内容分析和基于显著性的视觉影响分析，应用于Instagram上发布的这些葡萄园的文本和图像表示。在这种情况下，低密度可再生能源基础设施的增加似乎并没有干扰葡萄园的体验。所提出的技术可以应用于广泛的基础设施选址环境，包括施工前后，但需要额外的研究和校准。

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来源期刊

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES-

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

22.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This is the international, peer-reviewed journal of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA). It covers environmental, social, health and other impact assessments, cost-benefit analysis, technology assessment, and other approaches to anticipating and managing impacts. It has readers in universities, government and public agencies, consultancies, NGOs and elsewhere in over 100 countries. It has editorials, main articles, book reviews, and a professional practice section.