Effective Methods for Environmental Justice Assessment (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Care needs to be taken that negative visual effects do not disproportionately impact protected populations. Assessments of visual quality play a key role in the project development process.
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The second part discusses contemporary techniques for designing and communicating visual quality effects, with particular focus on communicating with protected population groups. Visual quality assessment process Transportation projects can cause significant visual impacts in the surrounding built environment.
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In addition, visual quality assessments are very rarely conducted to evaluate environmental justice issues. To ensure a high-quality visual environment, more attention needs to be paid to the overall visual quality of projects, as well as to how visual quality relates to environmental justice.
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4. Photo simulation or montage Screening Visualize proposed designs Existing condition photographs are available, the design is fairly advanced, or the audience is skeptical or poorly informed Medium Manual pasteup or digital photo editing (e.g., Photoshop)
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selected for the communication process should be appropriate for the target audience and for the level of design that is being represented. Too much abstraction or introduction of stylistic design elements can distort the potential visual quality impacts and confuse the viewing audience.
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256 in the project area. This is especially important on projects where protected populations have been identified.
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257 Figure 11-3. Typical illustrative section Figure 11-4.
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The photo simulation or montage technique has evolved into one of the most widely used methods for illustrating visual quality impacts. This technique consists of superimposing images of the proposed improvements on photographs of the existing environment.
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Before After Figure 11-5. "Before" and "after" photo simulation images
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Computer imaging typically is used in cases such as the following: • Existing-condition photo backgrounds and/or images of comparable proposed improvements are not available; • Designs have advanced far enough to clearly define the proposed improvements; • The proposed improvements would alter the existing environment to such a degree that very little of the existing conditions would remain; and • Reasonably realistic images are important to illustrate the visual quality impacts -- especially to highly skeptical audiences or where the impacts may be dramatically different from what the audience is expecting. This type of imaging product requires computer equipment and 3-D rendering programs.
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Computer-generated 3-D image This approach produces highly realistic images of the proposed improvements and their visual quality impacts. However, because everything is artificially created, there may be less credibility with this technique than with photo simulation or montage.
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For computer animation, the following are required: • Data about the existing conditions, such as AutoCAD plans, massing of existing buildings and structures, materials, textures, and color schemes; • Design information regarding the proposed improvements, such as location, massing, dimensions, materials, textures, and color schemes; and • 3-D computer drafting and rendering programs, such as AutoCAD, 3-D Viz, and Photoshop, and computer animation equipment and programs. This method produces highly realistic animated sequences of the proposed improvements and their visual quality impacts.
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However, that alone is not enough. The overriding objective of an environmental justice analysis is to ensure that protected populations are not subjected to a disproportionate share of the negative impacts of a project -- or that negative impacts are counterbalanced by equivalently disproportionate benefits.
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For example, a highway project might result in improved access to work places and shopping venues but at the same time reduce the visual quality of the corridor. Economists have used RP and SP methods extensively to estimate the dollar value of nonmarket goods such as visual quality.
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Contingent choice experiments Detailed Compare standards and values of populations Visual quality impacts are to be analyzed vis-à-vis other factors or when a dollar estimate of visual quality impact is desired Medium Survey methods, statistical methods, economic analysis 3. Distributive effect analysis Screening/ detailed Analyze distributive effects Differences in population standards and values are deemed important Medium/ high Statistical methods, GIS Environmental justice assessment of visual quality effects consists of four major steps: 1.
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It may also be used to estimate the value placed on particular aspects of visual quality or on changes in visual quality resulting from a transportation project. By conducting equivalent surveys on groups of respondents representing different protected and nonprotected populations, the standards and values of impacted populations can be characterized and integrated into subsequent analyses of distributive effects and environmental justice.
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Finally, VPS could be used to estimate differences in standards and values between protected and nonprotected populations -- for example, to establish how highly each population values foliage as a visual quality asset. To determine the most appealing design for a visual feature, simply compute the mean score for each alternative design within each population.
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VPS has relatively low requirements for external data because the majority of data are generated from the survey. Demographic data are required to determine if there are protected populations within the area of concern.
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Step 1 – Define the valuation problem. Determine the visual quality and other impacts to be assessed and the relevant protected populations.
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Telephone surveys are generally not appropriate for CC surveys because of the difficulty of conveying the tradeoff questions to people over the telephone. If any of the protected populations to be studied include a significant number of members for whom English is not their first language, consider communicating (interviews, focus groups, questionnaires)
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The discrete choice analysis methods used to analyze the results of a CC study yield weights that represent the value placed on each factor studied relative to the other factors. For this reason, it is desirable to select one factor, such as dollar cost, that can be used as a standard for comparisons among the other factors.
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An economic measure might also be used, such as the amount spent on beautification or visual screens in each analysis area. In either case, the estimate of visual quality impact is based simply on objective information and does not differ between protected and nonprotected populations.
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A Friedman two-way analysis of variance or similar nonparametric test may then be used to determine whether there is a significant interaction effect between populations and areas in total visual quality impact. A significant interaction effect would indicate that the visual quality impacts were not proportionately distributed among protected and nonprotected populations.
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2) The following Web site provides numerous examples of visual quality design and communication techniques for transportation system changes.
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