Enframing the Viewshed: Deliberative Democracy Experiments in the Wind Energy Age

界定视域：风能时代的协商民主实验

• 批准号: 0724672
• 负责人: Roopali Phadke
• 金额: $ 14.5万
• 依托单位: Macalester College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0724672&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Enframing; Viewshed; Deliberative; Democracy; Experiments

This research project, funded by the Science and Society Program, explores the visual impact assessment process for wind energy development. Large scale wind farms are being sited and installed across the USA by state governments and private developers in the rush to mitigate global warming and secure energy independence. Yet, many communities in the United States have raised their voices against the 'aesthetic pollution' caused by this form of renewable energy. In response to claims of 'visual burden', wind developers are now required by state and federal agencies to conduct viewshed analyses to estimate the visual impact of a proposed project. These visualizations simulate what wind turbines may look like against the landscape or seascape. In the course of producing these images, visual analysts must decide which views need protecting and what those views represent to residents and tourists visiting the region. These models become the authoritative simulations that govern public aesthetics. Yet, these images are routinely delegitimated, and even distorted, by citizen groups who argue that wind farms will be vastly more conspicuous than the simulations suggest. The objective of this research is to articulate the stakeholder strategies that help produce social acceptance of wind technologies. Through comparative case study development in the United States, this research project aims to better understand 1) how visual impact is simulated, classified and standardized by experts; and 2) the forms of deliberative decision-making that engage diverse publics in resolving visual conflict and mitigating perceived 'aesthetic pollution'. The research will be performed over three phases. In Phase I, nine case studies representing different geographic regions, developers, and landscape types will be examined through contextual research, phone and e-mail interviews. Based on this initial sample, three case studies will be chosen for in-depth field investigation. Phase II research, focusing on these three cases, will involve long, semi-structured interviews with 10-12 stakeholders at each project site. The goal of these interviews is to understand in detail how deliberative democracy mechanisms, including public hearings and visualization forums, have engaged stakeholders in negotiation and mitigation of visual impact. In Phase III, the case studies will be compared to understand the socio-economic, political and institutional configurations that help produce conditions for aesthetic consensus. In this final stage of research, the research results will be used to produce a community best practices guide for visual impact assessment. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its innovative synthesis of key STS literatures from the fields of deliberative democracy and visualization studies toward addressing civic participation in wind energy debates. There is very little research about the role of visualization in deliberative processes. In addition to expanding this literature, the research will aid practitioners by presenting alternative formats for recording visual impact and engaging stakeholders in deliberating mitigation techniques. The project's broader impacts are based on its aims to move the current wind energy visual impasse toward a more robust, civically engaged, discussion about the value of protecting place in a world of global climate and energy challenges. In addition to academic articles, findings will be posted on an interactive website and presented before relevant citizen groups, agencies, and industry associations. A community toolkit of best practices in visual impact assessment will be made available to interested groups via the project website.

该研究项目由科学与社会计划资助，探索风能开发的视觉影响评估过程。为了缓解全球变暖，确保能源独立，美国各州政府和私人开发商正在各地选址和安装大型风力发电场。然而，美国的许多社区已经发出了反对这种可再生能源造成的“美学污染”的声音。为了应对“视觉负担”的说法，州和联邦机构现在要求风能开发商进行视点分析，以估计拟议项目的视觉影响。这些可视化模拟了风力涡轮机在景观或海景的衬托下的样子。在制作这些图像的过程中，视觉分析人员必须决定哪些景观需要保护，以及这些景观对访问该地区的居民和游客意味着什么。这些模型成为支配公众审美的权威模拟。然而，这些图像通常被公民团体认为是不合法的，甚至是扭曲的，他们认为风力发电场将比模拟显示的要明显得多。这项研究的目的是阐明利益相关者的策略，帮助产生风能技术的社会接受度。通过比较美国的案例研究发展，本研究项目旨在更好地了解1)专家如何模拟、分类和标准化视觉冲击；2)协商决策的形式，让不同的公众参与解决视觉冲突和减轻感知的“审美污染”。这项研究将分三个阶段进行。在第一阶段，将通过背景研究、电话和电子邮件访谈对代表不同地理区域、开发商和景观类型的9个案例进行研究。基于这一初始样本，将选择三个案例研究进行深入的实地调查。第二阶段的研究将集中在这三个案例上，包括在每个项目现场与10-12名利益相关者进行长时间的半结构化访谈。这些访谈的目的是详细了解审议民主机制，包括公开听证会和可视化论坛，如何使利益攸关方参与谈判和减轻视觉影响。在第三阶段，将对案例研究进行比较，以了解有助于产生审美共识条件的社会经济、政治和制度配置。在研究的最后阶段，研究结果将用于编制社区最佳做法指南，以进行视觉影响评估。该项目的智力价值在于其创新地综合了来自协商民主和可视化研究领域的关键STS文献，以解决公民参与风能辩论的问题。关于可视化在审议过程中的作用的研究很少。除了扩展这一文献，该研究还将通过提出记录视觉影响的替代格式和让利益相关者参与审议缓解技术来帮助从业者。该项目的更广泛的影响是基于它的目标，将目前的风能视觉僵局推向一个更强大的、公民参与的、关于在全球气候和能源挑战的世界中保护地方的价值的讨论。除了学术文章外，调查结果还将发布在一个互动网站上，并向相关的公民团体、机构和行业协会展示。将通过项目网站向感兴趣的团体提供关于视觉影响评估最佳做法的社区工具包。