Environmental Engineering Reference
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the company. The construction site, which will prevail for some years, is not sub-
ject to visual presentation.
The given visualisations invite us to engage in the assessment in certain ways.
We can conclude that manipulated and polished pictures direct attention towards
visual assessment of the completed project, and at the same time deliver messages
of nature conservation and social responsibility. Thus, the aerial view from the sea
with clear blue skies and a visible horizon transports meanings that go beyond
landscape assessment in regard to impacts of a single project. Moreover, the pic-
ture describes the energy company in heroic terms, where new lands are ap-
proached and new frontiers reached.
Finland employs a strong “polluter-pays”-principle, and it is mainly the devel-
oper who is in charge of carrying out the environmental impact assessment. Coor-
dinating authorities are supposed to encourage nuclear development and do not
take a critical stance towards assessment procedures concerning possible biases.
Local and regional authorities have restricted themselves to the observation of as-
sessments rather than active engagement. Thus, certain biases in the set up of the
assessment including the making and presentation of simulations are easily identi-
fied. Since the environmental impact assessment report will be the main document
for the following debates and decisions on the project, an analysis of the use of
images is necessary. This article therefore focuses on scrutinising the possible
benefits and restrictions born by the use of imaging technologies. We will start our
analysis by reviewing the expectations and functions assigned to visual project
simulation by practitioners and scientists as stated in major management journals
(e.g.
Landscape and Urban Planning
,
Environment and Planning
) and mono-
graphs. Despite their eagerness to employ imaging technologies, many authors
have voiced concerns about the use of images in assessment procedures, since bi-
ases are quite often obvious. Moreover, theories of perception do not agree that
the high expectations of practitioners could be met by using imaging technologies.
Based on a literature review, managerial aims to facilitate smooth procedures with
the help of manipulated images and underlying assumptions about visual percep-
tion will be contrasted with phenomenological theories about the perception of the
environment.
20.3 Practical uses of Imaging Technologies in
Environmental Planning
Lange (2001) exemplifies the purpose of using imaging technologies by stating
that planning disciplines “want to be better understood by the public” (Lange
2001, p. 179). The notion of improving the “understanding of people” has been
described as the cognitive deficit model in research on public understanding of
science. In the deficit perspective, it is assumed that people have a lack of knowl-
edge which can be supplemented. Having received such lessons people are sup-
posed to make the right decisions (see Wieser 2002, Lynch 2004, Irwin 2006 and
Wynne 1992).
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