Abstract
The virtual reality of the landscape environment supplies a high level of realism of the real environment, and may improve the public awareness and acceptance of wind park projects. The soundscape around wind parks could have a strong influence on the acceptance and annoyance of wind parks. To explore this VR technology on realism and subjective responses toward different soundscapes of ambient wind parks, three different types of virtual reality on the smartphone tests were performed: aural only, visual only, and aural–visual combined. In total, 21 aural and visual combinations were presented to 40 participants. The aural and visual information used were of near wind park settings and rural spaces. Perceived annoyance levels and realism of the wind park environment were measured. Results indicated that most simulations were rated with relatively strong realism. Perceived realism was strongly correlated with light, color, and vegetation of the simulation. Most wind park landscapes were enthusiastically accepted by the participants. The addition of aural information was found to have a strong impact on whether the participant was annoyed. Furthermore, evaluation of the soundscape on a multidimensional scale revealed the key components influencing the individual’s annoyance by wind parks were the factors of “calmness/relaxation” and “naturality/pleasantness”. “Diversity” of the soundscape might correlate with perceived realism. Finally, the dynamic aural–visual stimuli using virtual reality technology could improve the environmental assessment of the wind park landscapes, and thus, provide a more comprehensible scientific decision than conventional tools. In addition, this study could improve the participatory planning process for more acceptable wind park landscapes.
Highlights
Wind parks are viewed as the top investment objective in renewables according to European Union (EU) targets, leading to the rapid increase of wind farms across Europe
The virtual environment of this study provided a fixed viewpoint in which the user could explore the simulated environment in 360 degrees
The addition of sound information on the simulated virtual environments contributed to a sufficient evaluation of wind park landscapes
Summary
Wind parks are viewed as the top investment objective in renewables according to European Union (EU) targets, leading to the rapid increase of wind farms across Europe. The installation of new renewable energy in the landscape has reached a critical mass, and is becoming a great issue in Germany and all over Europe [1]. According to a recently accepted survey about energy technology, there were significant differences between the acceptance of wind parks on the national and local levels. This was mainly because of the landscape modification after constructing wind farms [2]. Not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) syndrome increased the difficulty of the local acceptance of wind farms. The procedure for evaluating design from human-centered perspective and the gap between technical potential and social needs should be studied [4]
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