Coastal landscape preference of residents and tourists according to the physical attributes and viewpoints of offshore wind farms as seen through virtual reality

The construction of offshore wind farms typically encounters two challenges: 1) conflicting opinions of relevant stakeholders and 2) localized attributes reflected in the landscape evaluation system. To solve these problems, this study conducts a virtual landscape preference survey for both residents and potential tourists. The 10 virtual offshore wind farms’ landscape profiles were established according to four attributes: the number of turbines, arrangement of turbines, distance, and altitude. As a result, residents and potential tourists were reported to hold opposing perspectives about changing the number of turbines, the arrangement of the turbines, and the distance, though they gave the same response about changing the altitude. However, the exposure time to offshore wind farms and the number of visits to coastal areas did not affect the landscape preference of offshore wind farms. The results indicated the importance of considering both residents and potential tourists. In addition, the definite change of preference for altitude explained the necessity of new attributes that reflect the situation of coastal areas. Last, using virtual reality with 3D simulations could improve the evaluation system of offshore wind farms by reducing the temporal and spatial constraints. Thus, the results of this study could be utilized to develop offshore wind farm evaluation systems, which could reflect the opinions of residents and tourists by considering localized factors.