1. Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment for Renewable Energy Facilities
Hayden Burge and Alicia Burnett
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The business of sustainability

2. 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?

3. 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

4. Why do we assess Landscape & Visual Impact
Planning Expectations:
State Planning Policy
Local Planning Policy (maybe)
Zones/Overlays
Cl (renewable energy facilities)
Cl (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

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

6. 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

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

8. Photomontages ! Photomontages Technical Accuracy Perceptual Accuracy
Distort the view

9. Photomontages !
Technical Accuracy

10. Photomontages ! Perceptual Accuracy A4 Report A3 Appendices
A0 – Poster

11. Photomontages !
Beware of images that distort the view

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

13. 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

14. Questions ?