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iema: Updating EIA Practice, Cardiff 07 March 2012. Guidelines for Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment 3 rd Edition. Mary O ’ Connor AIEMA CMLI. Mary O ’ Connor …. AIEMA & CMLI Associate Director in WYG - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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iema: Updating EIA Practice, Cardiff 07 March 2012
GLVIA3
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Guidelines for Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment
3rd Edition
Mary O’Connor AIEMA CMLI
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Mary O’Connor …
AIEMA & CMLI
Associate Director in WYG
Member of the working party that produced & contributor to the current (2nd, 2002) edition of the Guidelines
Currently, member of the LI Advisory Panel guiding the production of the 3rd edition
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This presentation …
Contribution to iema EIA update to members
Briefing you on GLVIA3
Encouraging you to take part in the consultation
Part of WYG’s commitment as holders of iema EIA Quality Mark
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Practitioner led guidance to establish good practice and raise standards: editions 1 & 2
Draft of 3rd Edition out for consultation
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Background
Role of LVIA generally accepted and understood
Understanding of approaches and methods has evolved – and continues to evolve
Need for 3rd edition to update guidance to reflect changed understanding and methodologies
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Updating the LVIA Guidance
A shared endeavour …
Advisory Panel of LI and IEMA members
The writer: Professor Carys Swanwick
Consultation both before and after appointment of writer
Two rounds of consultation on structure
Now: Consultation Draft of 3rd Edition
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Programme
General consultation on Draft of 3rd Edition commenced 15 February 2012
Closing date: 14 March 2012
Advisory Panel and writer meet to review responses, late March 2012
To be published jointly by the Landscape Institute and iema, late 2012/early 2013
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Initial consultations: Key issues
Future proofing
Focus on principles
Areas of practice & techniques subject change: appendices? Interim guidance notes?
Applicability to devolved nations and overseas – emphasise principles not individual policy contexts
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Initial consultations: Key issues
Clear separation of landscape and visual aspects
“Ecosystem services” need to be addressed
Recognition of historic landscape and heritage agendas
Townscape, seascape …
Cumulative impact assessment
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Initial consultations: Key issues
Significance – debate whether the guidance should be prescriptive or illustrative
Iterative design-focussed nature of LVIA … a process
… many other comments filling a table of nearly 50 pages in length, summarised on LI GLVIA webpage
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Some other points
Opportunity to achieve alignment with other documents undergoing revision and updating
Need for consistency with new DMRB Chapter on Landscape and Visual matters for Highways
Cumulative assessment – how is this being approached and what should be advocated
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Some other points How to engage with the public and take their views
into account
Case Studies – are they helpful, how best to include them?
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Need for retrospective review of what actually happened after LVIA completed
Some other points
Images:
Top: Pre-existing view
Middle: Photomontage of proposals
Bottom: As-built view
Some background
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L&VIA derived from EIA Directive & UK Regulations Description of aspects of the environment likely to be
significantly affected to include “in particular”:
… population … landscape, and inter-relationship between them
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Understanding of “landscape”: ELC
European Landscape Convention 2000
Definition :
“Landscape” means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors
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Population = viewers of landscape
Visual impact assessment addresses the inter-relationship of landscape and population
The Guidelines
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Structure of 2Ed
9 Parts
Parts 1-3: Scope, principles, background
Parts 4-5: The proposals, mitigation
Parts 6-7: Baseline studies, assessment of effects
Part 8: Presentation
Part 9: Consultation and review
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Structure of 3Ed
Two parts, 9 Chapters
Part 1: Introduction, scope, context
Part 2: Principles, process, presentation
Part 1
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Landscape & Visual Amenity: separate but related topics, defined in 2Ed
Landscape effects derive from changes in the physical landscape, which may give rise to changes in its character and how this is experienced
Visual effects relate to the changes that arise in the composition of available views as a result of changes to the landscape, to people’s responses to the changes, and to the overall effects with respect to visual amenity
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Landscape & Visual Amenity: principle retained in 3Ed but re-expressed
Landscape effects assessment: deals with changes to landscape as a resource. Society as a whole has an interest in this and it is recognised as one of the key dimensions of environmental interest, alongside matters such as biodiversity, or cultural heritage. It is concerned with issues like protected landscapes, the contribution of landscape character to sense of place and quality of life for all, and the way that change may affect individual components of the landscape
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Landscape & Visual Amenity: principle retained in 3Ed but re-expressed
Landscape effects assessment: deals with changes to landscape as a resource. Society as a whole has an interest in this and it is recognised as one of the key dimensions of environmental interest, alongside matters such as biodiversity, or cultural heritage. It is concerned with issues like protected landscapes, the contribution of landscape character to sense of place and quality of life for all, and the way that change may affect individual components of the landscape
Visual effects assessment: is concerned with how the surroundings of individuals or groups of people may be specifically affected by change in the landscape. This means assessing changes in specific views and in the general visual amenity experienced by particular people in particular places
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Landscape & Visual Amenity
LVIA deals with both and should clearly demonstrate understanding of the difference
between them
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Landscape – scope enlarged in 3Ed
Rural landscapes
Urban contexts – townscape
Marine and coastal landscapes – seascape
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LVIA & other EIA topics
Cultural heritage
Ecology
Strategic and spatial planning
Interactions e.g. of mitigation measures
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LVIA & wider environmental concerns
Climate change – a force for change in the landscape in its own right and influence on assessment of proposals in the long term
Ecosystem services – many valued landscape features perform a wide range of functions and accommodate “services” from the environment
Sustainable development – an underlying concept in the planning system
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Purposes of LVIA
To understand and explain how the landscape or visual amenity will be changed as a result of the proposal
To apply a systematic process of description, analysis, reasoning and judgement …
… leading to conclusions concerning the significance of those changes
Characteristic of LVIA: frequently part of the project design process
Part 2: Principles & Process
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Principles
Overview in Chapter 4 EIA process & Screening Project description Scoping Baseline studies Identification and description of effects Mitigation Assessment of effects Engagement with stakeholders and the public
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Process: Chapters 5 - 8
3Ed differs from 2Ed in aggregating guidelines for the different aspects of LVIA
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Chapters 5 - 8
5 The proposals being assessed Describing the project proposals The iterative nature of LVIA in the
design process Main discussion of mitigation
Baseline description, classification, analysis
The development proposals
Potential effects
Receptors and sensitivity
Mitigation measures
Assessment of effects
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Chapters 5 - 8
5 The proposals being assessed
6 Dealing with landscape effects
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Chapters 5 - 8
5 The proposals being assessed
6 Dealing with landscape effects
7 Dealing with visual effects
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Chapters 5 - 8
5 The proposals being assessed
6 Dealing with landscape effects
7 Dealing with visual effects
8 Dealing with cumulative effects
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Each topic …
Establishing the baseline, the receptors
Predicting and describing effects
Evaluating the significance of effects Relating the nature of the receptors to the nature of the
change
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Evaluating the significance of effects
Receptors Sensitivity Importance/value
Magnitude of change
Geographic extent
Duration and reversibility
Significance of effects
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Sensitivity of receptors
Landscape sensitivity: “The relative ability of a landscape to respond to and, where
appropriate, accommodate change …”
Sensitivity of viewers: Occupation or activity of people experiencing the view Extent to which their attention is focused on the landscape
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Importance or value
Separate from sensitivity
Landscape: Designations as indicators Value of individual components and contribution to landscape
character
Viewers: Nature of the view Numbers of people affected Length of time view experienced Recognised importance of view
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Magnitude of change, extent, duration
The “amount of change”
Geographic extent: Large change affecting local area or a small change spread over large area
Duration: short, medium, long term; limited lifetime, reversibility
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Cumulative assessment
2Ed provided only brief overview
3Ed devotes Chapter 8 to the topic, discussing: Types of development to include Timescale of proposals to be included Defining study areas Assessing cumulative landscape effects Assessing cumulative visual effects
A complex and evolving field – your responses sought!
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Assessment
Judgements of significance are arrived at by a process of reasoning based upon the analysis of baseline conditions and sensitivity, and of the degree and nature of changes arising from the proposals
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Assessment principles
Clearly defined criteria and their application fully explained
Numerical scoring or weighting to be avoided – spurious level of precision
Verbal scales with three to six categories preferred
Two way matrices or tables may be useful
Overall judgement of significance should be made as consistently and transparently as possible
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Presentation
Provide information in a way that will help decision-makers, not usually expert in the field
Narrative text helps non-experts to understand the issues
Illustrations for quick and easy communication – in support of the text, proportionate to the task in hand
Tables and matrices to support and summarise narrative descriptive text, not to replace it
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Presentation
L&VIA often said to be subjective
Therefore, there is greater importance on explaining the process of analysis and reasoning that led to the conclusions
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Review, Validation & Verification
Review packages for structured look at the content of environmental statements
iema: EIA Quality Mark - ES Review Criteria Scottish Natural Heritage: Handbook on EIA EC Guidance
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Hopes for GLVIA3
To provide the basis for coping with the evolution of LVIA into the future – at least for
another 10 years
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Take part in the consultation …
LI GLVIA3 webpage:http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/knowledge/GLVIA.php
Download the text: http://landscapeinstitute-news.org/6KZ-PAE6-NAG80-9NW4Y-1/c.aspx
Online questionnaire: http://landscapeinstitute-news.org/6KZ-PAE6-NAG80-9NW1Z-1/c.aspx
Discussion …