The acceptability of wind farms: the impact of public participation

The planning process for wind farm projects appears to be a complicated matter in many cases. Despite the positive attitude towards wind power in general, local wind farm projects often face strong opposition. The aim of this study is to shed more light on residents’ perceptions of participation in the planning process of wind farms. This study is based on interview data (N?=?22) and survey data (N?=?291) collected from residents living near two Finnish large-scale onshore wind farms built about 1.5 years before the data were collected. The results indicate that residents’ participation in the planning process was rather passive and the vast majority of the respondents perceived that they did not have an opportunity to participate. Quite interestingly, perceived participation in the planning process resulted in a decrease in acceptability in terms of perceived well-being. Furthermore, the results indicate that the need for participation does not expire after the planning process for a wind farm has concluded. Thus, project developers should be prepared to continue communication with residents after the planning phase.     

How to encourage conflict in the environmental decision-making process: imparting lessons from civic environmentalism to local policy-makers

The literature on civic environmentalism suggests that the environmental decision-making process must be perceived by citizens to be inclusive, transparent, and legitimate in order to avoid conflict and encourage stakeholder collaboration. We suggest that studies of environmental decision-making must apply this framework to three key variables: agenda setting, conflicts of interest, and politicised institutions, which impact the potential for citizen collaboration at the local level. Using content analysis of newspaper articles, participant observations, and informal field interviews, we evaluate a case study of citizen opposition to a power plant air permit. We demonstrate how citizen perceptions of agenda setting by local officials, conflicts of interest, and the inability of citizens to affect final decisions after winning in multiple legal and administrative venues, creates conflict by not embodying these civic environmentalist principles. We conclude with policy suggestions for creating a less conflict-riddled process.     

PUBLIC INFORMATION AND CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT1

ABSTRACT: Public information, an important contributer to citizen involvement in the governmental decision making process, has traditionally been given a low priority by government agencies. However, citizens are becoming increasingly concerned about governmental decisions that affect their lives and are demanding more information about governmental activities, including information about water resource issues, Because of this active citizen interest and involvement, the role of public information in increasing citizen awareness is becoming more important. Government officials and professionals should recognize that public information efforts also play an important role in achieving increased credibility and respect for their agencies. Once an agency recognizes the importance of public information and decides to initiate a public information program, careful planning is required to develop a program that addresses the needs of both the citizens and the agency. Two of the most flexible and cost effective ways to get information to the publié are through publications and public meetings. Both can be easily adapted to suit the needs of specific audiences and projects. A successful public information program can be carried out at a relatively low cost, but it requires a substantial amount of time and energy. The commitment of time and energy for this purpose is a good investment, however, because an effective public information program can play a significant role in improving the quality of governmental decisions through the increased involvement of the citizenry.     

The impact of visual factors on noise annoyance among people living in the vicinity of wind turbines

Wind turbines are highly visible objects and the response to wind turbine noise is possibly influenced by visual factors. In this study, visibility of the noise source, visual attitude and vertical visual angle (VVA) in different landscapes were explored. Data from two cross-sectional field studies carried out among people living near wind turbines (n=1095) were used for structural equation modelling. A proposed model of the influence of visual attitude on noise annoyance, also comprising the influence of noise level and general attitude, was tested among respondents who could see vs. respondents who could not see wind turbines from their homes, living in flat vs. hilly/rocky terrain, and living in built-up vs. rural areas. Visual attitude towards the noise source was associated with noise annoyance to different degrees in different situations. A negative visual attitude, more than multi-modal effects between auditory and visual stimulation, enhanced the risk for noise annoyance and possibly also prevented psychophysiological restoration possibilities. Aesthetic evaluations of the noise source should be taken into account when exploring response to environmental noise.     

Protection policy for Hawaii's native wildlife during geothermal energy development

Hawaii possesses abundant geothermal resources and rare native wildlife. Geothermal energy development has not posed a threat to native wildlife in the past, but development potential has recently reached a level at which concern for native wildlife is warranted.Potential geothermal resource areas in Hawaii intersect important native forest and endangered species habitat. The ability of existing laws to constrain development in these areas is in question. State and federal endangered species and environmental reporting laws have little ability to constrain geothermal development on private land. Hawaii's Land Use Law had been viewed by conservationists as protecting natural areas important to native wildlife, but recent decisions of the state Land Board sharply challenge this view.While this dispute was being resolved in the courts, the state legislature passed the Geothermal Subzone Act of 1983. Wildlife value was assessed in the geothermal subzone designation process mandated by this act, but the subzones designated primarily reflected inappropriate developer influence. All areas in which there was developer interest received subzone designation, and no area in which there was no developer interest was subzoned. This overriding emphasis on developer interest violated the intent of the sub-zone act, and trivialized the importance of other assessment criteria, among them native wildlife values.     

The Cost of Developing Site-Specific Environmental Regulations: Evidence from EPA's Project XL

The flagship of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory reinvention initiative, Project XL has been touted as a regulatory blueprint for a site-specific, performance-based pollution-control system, but widespread complaints about the costs of the program beg the question of whether the costs of tailoring regulations to individual facilities are manageable. To address this question, this paper presents original survey data on a sample of 11 XL projects. We find that the fixed costs of putting in place XL agreements are substantial, averaging over $450,000 per firm. While stakeholder negotiations are widely cited as the principal source for these costs, we find that they actually arise mainly from interaction between participating facilities and the EPA. Moreover, EPA management problems are perceived by our survey respondents as having inflated project development costs. Finally, we find that the key factors that explains differences in costs across XL projects are the scope and complexity of the project proposal. These findings suggest that Project XL favors large firms that can afford to pay significant project development costs, that EPA management problems must be resolved to reduce costs, and that there may be a significant economic bias against complex and innovative proposals—precisely the type of proposals that Project XL was designed to foster in order to improve the efficiency of the regulatory system.     

Building Local Community Commitment to Wetlands Restoration: A Case Study of the Cache River Wetlands in Southern Illinois, USA

Natural resource professionals are increasingly faced with the challenges of cultivating community-based support for wetland ecosystem restoration. While extensive research efforts have been directed toward understanding the biophysical dimensions of wetland conservation, the literature provides less guidance on how to successfully integrate community stakeholders into restoration planning. Therefore, this study explores the social construction of wetlands locally, and community members’ perceptions of the wetland restoration project in the Cache River Watershed of southern Illinois, where public and private agencies have partnered together to implement a large-scale wetlands restoration project. Findings illustrate that the wetlands hold diverse and significant meanings to community members and that community members’ criteria for project success may vary from those identified by project managers. The case study provides managers with strategies for building community commitment such as engaging local citizens in project planning, minimizing local burdens, maximizing local benefits, and reducing uncertainty.     

Economic performance and carbon intensity of human well-being: empirical evidence from the MENA region

Our paper explores the effect of economic performance variables on the carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB) for 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the period (1995–2013). We use a time-series cross-sectional Prais–Winsten regression model with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSEs). We find that economic performance has a statistically significant positive influence on CIWB over the period in question; thus, economic performance harms the environment, but the final effect deviates to a constant level after a while. This finding is not encouraging from the economic sustainability point of view. On the contrary, we find that total health expenditure has a statistically significant negative impact on CIWB by increasing life expectancy, which means less stress on the environment.     

Best location of the small wind turbine around a single high-rise building

This research is a three-dimensional investigation about the aerodynamic interaction between the wind flow and a single high-rise building. In order to find location(s) with high potential of velocity around the building, a wide variety of wind speeds ranging from 2 to 10 m/s is studied. On the other hand, a high-rise building with the ratio of height to width of H/W = 3 is considered. Computations are performed numerically by means of the finite volume approach. Several results are obtained in the present numerical study. For example, it is found that due to wind-structure vertical interaction, locations with enhanced velocities are developed on the building roof in which the rate of this enhancement increases with increasing the wind speed. In addition, over the building, “lines C and D” are realized as the best locations having high power potentials and low turbulence intensities. In addition, lateral wind-structure interaction revealed that for all wind speeds, location of L/W = 0.5 is the best for the small wind turbine installation.     

The risk/no-risk rhetoric of environmental impact assessments (EIA): the case of offshore wind farms in Sweden

Risk is a key topic in the communication between developers of infrastructure projects, permit-granting authorities, and civil society. The nature of risk communication is contested among academics, however. Whereas some scholars conceive of risk communication as a matter of effectively communicating expert knowledge on factual matters to the public, others emphasise the role of symbolic construction and rhetoric. This article analyses how wind farm developers rhetorically construct risks in relation to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a large offshore wind farm project. Our analysis is inspired by the New Rhetoric, the theory of argumentation developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (Traité de l'argumentation – la nouvelle rhétorique, Brussels: Éditions des presses de l'université de Bruxelles, 1958). We suggest that the EIA adopt a dual argumentative strategy. The report associates numerous risks with the project by identifying and cataloguing them; however, these risks are also disconnected from the project by being described as nonexistent, negligible, or manageable. We discuss some implications of considering EIAs, not as accounts of reality, but as loci of production for this reality.     

The value of urban open space: Meta-analyses of contingent valuation and hedonic pricing results

Urban open space provides a number of valuable services to urban populations, including recreational opportunities, aesthetic enjoyment, environmental functions, and may also be associated with existence values. In separate meta-analyses of the contingent valuation (CV) and hedonic pricing (HP) literature we examine which physical, socio-economic, and study characteristics determine the value of open space. The dependent variable in the CV meta-regression is defined as the value of open space per hectare per year in 2003 US$, and in the HP model as the percentage change in house price for a 10 m decrease in distance to open space. Using a multi-level modelling approach we find in both the CV and HP analyses that there is a positive and significant relationship between the value of urban open space and population density, indicating that scarcity and crowdedness matter, and that the value of open space does not vary significantly with income. Further, urban parks are more highly valued than other types of urban open space (forests, agricultural and undeveloped land) and methodological differences in study design have a large influence on estimated values from both CV and HP. We also find important regional differences in preferences for urban open space, which suggests that the potential for transferring estimated values between regions is likely to be limited.     

The willingness to pay to remove billboards and improve scenic amenities

We use the contingent valuation method to measure the amount citizens are willing to pay to improve scenic mountain-view amenities through the removal of billboards. Our approach addresses both the perceived property rights as well as the perceptions of the status quo in the southern Appalachian Mountains. We find that individuals who retire to the mountains have different preferences for land use and mountain views than individuals who have ancestors who lived in Watauga County. In the aggregate, we find that citizens are willing to pay almost one-half million dollars to remove billboards from Watauga County roadsides. This study provides insights to the debate surrounding land use along public roads.     

Collaborative Modeling to Evaluate Water Management Scenarios in the Rio Grande Basin

This article describes the collaborative modeling process and the resulting water resources planning model developed to evaluate water management scenarios in the transboundary Rio Grande basin. The Rio Grande is a severely water stressed basin that faces numerous management challenges as it crosses numerous jurisdictional boundaries. A collaborative process was undertaken to identify and model water management scenarios to improve water supply for stakeholders, the environment, and international obligations of water delivery from Mexico to the United States. A transparent and open process of data collection, model building, and scenario development was completed by a project steering committee composed of university, nongovernmental, and governmental experts from both countries. The outcome of the process was a planning model described in this article, with data and operations that were agreed on by water planning officials in each country. Water management scenarios were created from stakeholder input and were modeled and evaluated for effectiveness with the planning model.     

From NIMBY to enlightened resistance: a framework proposal to decrypt land-use disputes based on a landfill opposition case in France

Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) supporters are presented as citizens in opposition to local developments due to their spatial proximity. However, these conflicts have proven much more complex than the NIMBY concept can explain. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework to facilitate the understanding of opposition movements and how they can affect society at large, triggering social change. The conceptual framework is applied to a case of local opposition to a landfill project in Essonne, France. Through the analysis of the structure of the opposition movement and its changes over time, the author shows how it can evolve into a social movement that enriches democracy through the constitution of four types of capital: social, scientific, patrimonial and political. The author argues that scientific and patrimonial capitals allow social capital to evolve into political capital. The shift from being a self-interest to a civic interest movement is called enlightened resistance, which reveals local public interest, called territorial interests. When studying environmental controversies, the author emphasises the importance of recognizing the evolution through time of (1) social landscape, (2) different types of legitimate knowledge, (3) the role of place attachment, and (4) the political dimension of identities.     

Advocates for environmental justice: the role of the champion in public participation implementation

That segment of the community I would say is just in general pretty disenfranchised. We found that if you want participation you have to go to them. I mean there are days when you just need to go knock on the door.

Brownfields developer in a poor urban neighbourhood

This article considers the role that champions play as advocates for socioeconomically disadvantaged community member involvement in environmental management decision-making. Six case studies of brownfields redevelopment projects located in poor urban neighbourhoods are examined. Analysis of these case studies reveals how champion behaviour, which has typically been studied only in the context of technological innovation, is enacted in public participation efforts in the service of environmental justice. The study finds that champions who emerge in these settings lead the development and implementation of non-standard public participation process innovations.     

POLICY RELEVANT INFORMATION AND PUBLIC ATTITUDES: IS PUBLIC IGNORANCE A BARRIER TO NONPOINT POLLUTION MANAGEMENT?1

ABSTRACT: This study examines the extent to which knowledge deficits pose a significant barrier to public support for nonpoint pollution management strategies. Such barriers would obtain if all of the following conditions are present: (1) many in the public lack knowledge relevant to those strategies; (2) variations in knowledge are linked only to relatively unchanging personal attributes; and (3) individuals with more knowledge are more likely to support the implementation of management strategies. Each of these conditions is subjected to empirical analysis in this study. The findings reported here derive from a survey of citizens in Spokane, Washington, the site of a major 208 Water Quality Management Program study. The results of the survey indicate that: portions of the public have enough knowledge to evaluate technically based management strategies; sources of public knowledge are sufficiently elastic that both policy area concern and policy relevant knowledge can be elevated in the short run; and both knowledge levels and general attitudes are related to the public's specific water policy preferences. The study concludes that the apparent lack of knowledge among the public is not necessarily a significant barrier to policy implementation, and that support for implementation may be generated through both knowledge enhancement and the tapping of existing political orientations through the placement of emphasis upon the seriousness of water resource problems.     

Water Management Applications for Satellite Precipitation Products: Synthesis and Recommendations

This article is an assessment of the current state of the art and relative utility of satellite precipitation products (SPPs) for hydrologic applications to support water management decisions. We present a review of SPPs, their accuracy in diverse settings including the influence of geography, topography, and weather systems, as well as the pros and cons of their use for different water management applications. At the end of this broad synthesizing effort, recommendations are proposed for: (1) SPP developers to improve the quality, usability, and relevance of precipitation products; and (2) SPP users to improve the reliability of their predictions and hydrologic applications to better support water management.     

Engaging the community at the Tampakan Copper Project: a community case study in resource development with indigenous people

There is little doubt that one of the most significant challenges facing the mining industry today is how to deal with sociocultural issues, particularly those concerning indigenous groups who are potentially affected by mineral developments. No longer is a project's success dependent on technical and economic considerations alone. Community issues are now an integral component of overall project risk. For the mining industry, therefore, the establishment of positive, strong and transparent relationships with local communities is more than just a moral imperative; it makes good business sense. A case study of WMC's Tampakan Copper Project in the Philippines provides an illustration of how mining companies are developing their capacity to deal with sociocultural concerns.     

An Ethical Toolkit for Food Companies: Reflections on its Use

Nowadays many debates are going on that relate to the agricultural and food sector. It looks as if present technological and organizational developments within the agricultural and food sector are badly geared to societal needs and expectations. In this article we briefly present a toolkit for moral communication within the food chain. This toolkit is developed as part of a European research project. Next, we discuss what such a toolkit can bring about, given the characteristics of the present day agricultural and food sector and its wider context. We defend that the toolkit can be seen as one of the mechanisms that can help enterprises in the agricultural and food sector to be accountable. It should, however, be complemented with other mechanisms, first, to empower the wider public and, second, to stimulate a dialogue, on a more equal footing, between public authorities, citizens, and economic actors.