Environment, Enterprise and Development

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's School of Environment, Enterprise and Development.

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Browsing Environment, Enterprise and Development by Author "Feltmate, Blair"

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    An Examination of the Social, Legal and Political Factors that Impact the Permitting Process for Wind Energy Transmission Line Projects in Canada
    (University of Waterloo, 2024-06-04) Dykstra, Erin; Feltmate, Blair
    In order to mitigate the effects of climate change, energy systems are undergoing a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Renewable energy is a core component of decarbonization and climate mitigation strategies, and wind energy is one of the fastest growing and most affordable sources of renewable power. However, locations in Canada with the best onshore wind energy resources are often remote and unserved or underserved by the current electrical grid. In order to support expanded deployment of wind energy in these locations, transmission lines must be constructed or expanded. While researchers have identified a lack of sufficient transmission infrastructure as one of the most significant barriers to increasing wind energy generation capacity, no study has thoroughly examined the factors that impact the permitting process of wind energy transmission line projects in Canada. This thesis aims to fill this research gap by examining the social, legal, and political factors that impact wind energy transmission line projects in Canada. This research was composed of (1) a content analysis of transmission line permitting documents from a selection of Canadian provinces and the federal government, and (2) an online survey of professionals active in the transmission line permitting process, including energy producers, energy regulators, permitting authorities, private firms, and public policy professionals. The results of the content analysis—which revealed that permitting documents do not include information about the factors impacting permitting decisions—and low participation rate in the survey indicate a lack of transparency in the permitting process, a finding which is in accordance with institutional theory and prior research demonstrating the difficulty of studying closed government processes. Statistical and descriptive analyses of the survey data revealed a complicated relationship between permitting processes, public policy, lobbying, and public opinion. These results align with public values theory, social license to operate theory, and prior research demonstrating the importance of public consultation and community acceptance for infrastructure projects, especially projects such as above-ground transmission lines and wind turbines that have a significant aesthetic impact on the surrounding community.
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    Promoting Flood Risk Mitigation Among Canadians Through Effective Risk Communication
    (University of Waterloo, 2022-10-04) Krueger, Rachel; Feltmate, Blair
    Amid reports of low levels of flood risk awareness and preparedness among Canadians, risk communication emerges as an important tool for encouraging public participation in flood risk management (FRM) and increasing collective flood resilience. In its most basic form, risk communication informs people of their risk and provides solutions to reduce it. Disaster studies scholars, however, assert that an individual’s decision to take protective action from hazards is mediated by an array of social, economic and cognitive factors. To this end, there are growing calls to incorporate audiences’ social and physical environment as well as insights from behavioural science into risk communication methods to increase their efficacy. Whether relevant Canadian stakeholders consider those factors in their flood risk communication strategies is unclear, which raises several fundamental questions about flood risk communication in Canada, such as: What are the challenges and opportunities of incorporating risk perception and risk communication theory into flood risk communication practice? Is flood risk communication by key Canadian communicators (e.g., governments, insurance companies, civil society organizations and academic groups) achieving its goals of increasing the knowledge and capacity for flood preparedness of those at risk? If so, how is this assessed? This research aims to provide a comprehensive review of Canadian municipalities’—important flood risk communicators—flood risk communication practices relative to risk communication theory. Surveys of municipal staff from 18 large, flood-prone Canadian municipalities and interviews of 21 subject matter experts concerning household-level flood risk mitigation were conducted and the results were analysed using risk communication and risk perception literature; the latter is grounded in protection motivation theory, a widely-used behavioural framework in flood risk research. The results indicate that most municipalities’ flood risk communications should theoretically be raising residents’ flood risk awareness and preparedness. Limited time and resources function as the greatest barriers to municipalities’ flood risk communication efforts to the public; such barriers impede some municipalities’ abilities to address known deficiencies in their flood risk communication practices. Public-private and public-public partnerships were identified as critical to overcome municipal resource constraints and to enhance the impact of flood risk education programs and/or flood risk communication messages. The findings have implications for federal and provincial policies to expand local government responsibility for FRM, because they suggest that such decisions neglect the diversity of local governments with respect to their funding and capacities. Future research recommendations include the further application of evaluation frameworks to flood risk communication activities in light of the finding that Canadian flood risk communicators’ metrics of “successful” flood risk communications are highly variable or altogether absent. In the absence of flood risk communication standards, its impact will remain intangible.