Renewable Energy Landscapes: investigating the public perception to support inclusive planning processes

To reduce human impacts on the environment, it is necessary to rethink the energy system and provide for the use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). However, the massive deployment of RES causes not only physical, but also perceptual transformations of the landscape, especially affecting the people who live, work or recreate in it. Indeed, recalling the European Landscape Convention’s definition of landscape, as “any part of the territory such as it is perceived by its inhabitants, being its character defined by the action of natural and/or human factors and their interrelationship”, these significant transformations can cause unfamiliar, immediate and dramatic changes. To ensure acceptance of the landscape changes entailed, planning processes are required to include people‘s perception. To address these issues, the EU research project “Planning and Engagement Arenas for Renewable Energy Landscapes” – PEARLS (https://pearlsproject.org/) focuses on engaging people as actors in spatial planning and social innovation in the renewable energy transition. In this framework, the contribution presents the results of two investigations about the public perception of different renewable energy landscapes in Greece. The first case regards licensed on-ground photovoltaic plants in Central Macedonia’s rural areas; the second case focuses on both existing and planned wind turbines in Paros Island. These investigations were parallelly conducted disseminating (both on site and online) a questionnaire, structured in four main sections as follows: general information about the respondents and their level of involvement; perceived impacts and assessment of site selection criteria; opinion on innovative landscape-integrated design solutions; perceived social and economic benefits. The results of the study provide useful information for the inclusion in the local planning tools of landscape perception, knowledge, and social concerns expressed by inhabitants and stakeholders to better manage the landscape transformations driven by the renewable energy transition, ensuring community acceptance and landscape-inclusive transformations.