Mitigation of and adaptation to climate change are significant goals for many cities. Many promote smart growth development patterns aimed in part at reducing energy use and emissions. However, while citizens may endorse broad energy-mitigation policies, they often resist the implementation of such policies via smart growth and other mitigation initiatives in their own neighborhoods. This study looked at whether public understanding and acceptance of smart-growth policies could be improved if citizens were provided with timely, accessible visualizations about why and how such policies can help reduce energy use. This paper reviews two public-engagement workshops that utilized a collaborative touch table combined with three-dimensional visualizations and metrics that were updated in real time. Working both individually and collaboratively on an urban-design task, all participants improved the smart growth and energy-related performance of the study areas via their solutions in the first workshop, but they did not all further improve the energy-related performance of the areas after receiving additional energy knowledge and metrics in a follow-up workshop. Participants responded favorably to the medium and to the collaborative learning it enabled.
Girling, C; Senbel, M; Kellett, R
EFFECTS OF VISUALIZATIONS AND INFORMATION RICH PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT IN PLANNING FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS
Journal Of Architectural And Planning Research