Managing Ireland's visual amenity : an evaluation of visual impact assessment practice and local authority management policies for the visual amenity in Ireland

Abstract

The EU Directive (85/337/EEC) introduced the requirement to conduct EIA for major developments in 1988 and the new Planning and Development Act in 2000 introduced the requirement that all planning applications be evaluated using sustainable development as one of the criteria in the decision-making process. The first survey examined the quality of visual impact assessments (VIA) carried out within a sample of environmental impact statements (EIS) prepared for the development control process in Ireland. The sample included 164 EISs submitted between 1997 and 1999 within three categories of development; piggeries, quarries and urban developments. The findings supply evidence on the nature, visualization techniques used and the quality of visual impact assessment practice during this period. The extent to which VIA have complied with the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines and disparities between the results for each development category are examined. The survey concluded that (i) the standard of VIA is less comprehensive than might be expected, and (ii) the use of visualization techniques for VIA could be substantially improved. The second survey examined development policies used within the planning and development system to manage the visual amenity. Four stakeholder groups of the planning system were interviewed including planners, design professionals, environmental non-govemmental organizations and the environmental spokespersons for the main political parties in Ireland. These findings supply information on the development pressures impacting most significantly on the visual amenity, policies protecting the visual amenity within County and City Development Plans, other development policies impacting on the visual amenity, and methods used to enhance the visual amenity. The results indicate that although development policies protecting the visual amenity have been largely successful to date, development policies and strategies for enhancing the visual amenity lack coherence and focus. The concept of a National Landscape Plan is considered as a framework to facilitate the co-ordination of physical developments across development sectors and a set of guidelines for the visual amenity are presented as a contribution towards the preparation of the National Landscape Plan.