Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment for Renewable Energy Facilities Hayden Burge and Alicia Burnett © Copyright 2018 by ERM Worldwide Limited and/or its affiliates (‘ERM’). All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written The business of sustainability

Contents Group Exercise Why do we assess visual impact? What is visual impact? How do we assess visual impact? Can I trust photomontages? Mitigation Options Key Lessons Questions?

Exercise – What is the height of that turbine? Use post it notes to guess turbine height in each image 130m - Yellow 165m - Pink 170m - Blue 189m - Orange

Why do we assess Landscape & Visual Impact Planning Expectations: State Planning Policy Local Planning Policy (maybe) Zones/Overlays Cl 52.42 (renewable energy facilities) Cl 52.17 (removal of native veg) Planning and Policy Development for Wind Energy Facilities Community Expectations: Community generally expect us to consider landscape values and visual amenity

What is a ‘Visual Impact’? A human reaction to a view - Subjective Quantitative and Qualitative

How do we assess Landscape & Visual Impact? Key Steps: Describe the project Define the extent of the study area and zones of visual influence Areas of visibility Landscape Character and Visual Sensitivity Assessment of the Visual Impacts Photomontages Mitigation

Assessing Landscape & Visual Impact! Impact Assessment Representative viewpoints Define the Quantifiable Describe the quality of views 3 2 4 1

Photomontages ! Photomontages Technical Accuracy Perceptual Accuracy Distort the view

Photomontages ! Technical Accuracy

Photomontages ! Perceptual Accuracy A4 Report A3 Appendices A0 – Poster

Photomontages ! Beware of images that distort the view

Landscape Mitigation? If required, mitigation reduce visual impact from sensitive locations Screening at the project Screening at the affected area Redesign

Key Lessons Take the time to visit the site Technical and Perceptual Accuracy Visual Impact is a weighting of criteria – not project visibility Landscape Mitigation is effective

Questions ?