Emotional Responses to a Changing Climate, Development, and Densification in Southern Vancouver Island’s Sub-Regions

Chris Ling and Sarah Wolfe was granted an Internal Grant for Research to provide insights into social and environmental psychology and the emotional responses to change in urban and peri-urban areas.

We will investigate the emotions underpinning community responses to growth and its impact on place/landscape perceptions in urban and peri-urban communities. Our objectives are to articulate the relationship between emotion, place attachment, and receptivity to, or rejection of landscape change created by a changing climate and planning decisions. Using southern Vancouver Island as our case, we’ll compare emotions, intended behaviours, and stated preferences related to housing supply, affordability, green and blue infrastructure, and the landscape aesthetic of urban and peri-urban sub-regions. To meet these objectives, we combine insights from social and environmental psychology, cognitive-affective geography, urban planning, and landscape ecology.