Although impacts to tourism from offshore wind energy development are widely cited as a concern by communities and policy makers, little work has sought to define what constitutes tourism and recreation impacts or provided empirical evidence of impacts from operating projects. It has been suggested that tourists and recreationalists may change their behavior in selecting destinations due to the visibility of offshore wind structures. This study was designed to collect and review empirical data from the Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF)—the first U.S. offshore wind farm, which consists of five turbines located three miles off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. The BIWF provided an invaluable opportunity to study social perceptions of, interactions with, and impacts of offshore wind infrastructure in a dynamic coastal environment as events unfold in the public record and in real time. The University of Rhode Island (URI) team devised an integrated collection of research methods capable of examining multiple forms of place-based use and perceptions as well as multiple kinds of records over several years. The primary research methods included a content analysis of regional news media, literature review, ethnographic participant observation and open ended interviews, and focus groups with key stakeholder representatives. Overall, the URI research team found little evidence that BIWF has adversely affected tourism and recreation. It appears that, instead, the wind farm has enhanced some experiences on the water and on Block Island. The wind farm had little impact on tourism and recreation on the Rhode Island mainland, which is 16 nautical miles from the project.

USD: $311,000

2016-10-10 → 2019-03-31