The Visual Content of Environmental Impact Assessments
Date
2014-06-10
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Abstract
Environmental decision-making is often a protracted, contentious process involving numerous stakeholders, and is often centered on a key document – the environmental impact assessment (EIA). The EIA presents the environmental data along with expert opinions, which are often described using visual forms - a term used in this context to cover various tables, maps, charts, illustrations and photos. This research focuses on how these visual forms are used inside environmental impact assessments. A content analysis of visual forms within the public records of environmental impact assessments was undertaken to determine a baseline usage frequency. To provide structure to the content analysis, the use of the Rodman-Felleman visual framework was used. This visual framework was shown to effectively map the usage frequencies to the main requirements under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act thereby disclosing the subject focus for environmental data and expert opinions. The level of visual abstraction, a main axis of visual analysis, was assessed by a series of visual variables (e.g. visual size, orientation, background, etc.) to determine usage patterns and styles. From this secondary analysis of visual abstraction, a set of visual heuristics was developed along the lines of critical viewing practices for visuals within an environmental impact assessment. Further development of these visual heuristics could lead to improvements in the application and interpretation of visual forms within environmental impact assessments.
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Citation
Butt, A. M. (2014). The Visual Content of Environmental Impact Assessments (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28418