Risk perceptions and marine spatial planning surrounding tidal energy in British Columbia ...

• Main Author: Taccogna, Matthew Ryan
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2016
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0300304; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0300304

This thesis examines in-stream tidal energy (ISTE) generation technology and its potential for development, underwater within Discovery Passage, a narrow channel ocean environment near Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada. The study took place in the summer of 2014 and measured levels of support and opposition towards two separate investigative license (IL) ocean energy sites held by a BC developer. The primary approach was to interview expert marine stakeholders and First Nations persons based on their commercial, recreational and cultural usage of the Discovery Passage waterway and its foreshores near the ILs. The study measured subjects’ risk and benefit perceptions of the technology and the projects, levels of support for its development, willingness to pay for it, and any specific conflicts with the developments, both on and under the water. Interactive marine spatial planning (IMSP) and geographic information systems (GIS) were used to elicit respondents’ principle areas of marine usage within the ...