ID: 1557
Presenting Author: Jonathan Ward
Session: 526 - The Truth Tangle: Untying Misinformation in Impact Assessment
Status: pending
This paper explores how misinformation shapes impact assessments based on real-world examples sharing practical tools to rebuild trust and credibility in complex, contentious project reviews.
Misinformation has become a defining challenge in the practice of impact assessment, particularly for complex and controversial projects such as pipelines, renewable-energy corridors, and port expansions. In these contexts, uncertainty, perceived risk, and low institutional trust create fertile ground for misinformation to circulate and shape public opinion. Drawing on examples from Canada’s Trans Mountain Expansion and Northern Gateway pipeline processes, offshore wind developments in Europe, and liquefied natural gas proposals in British Columbia, this paper explores how narratives of risk and competing knowledge systems influence public perception and, ultimately, decision-making.
The paper shares tools and approaches for assessors and proponents seeking to counter misinformation and rebuild credibility. Tools include early “truth-mapping” of potential misinformation vectors, transparent communication of uncertainty through plain-language summaries, participatory data visualization to foster shared interpretation, and the establishment of trusted community intermediaries to validate and relay technical information. Together, these approaches move beyond reactive myth-busting toward proactive credibility-building.
By integrating insights from risk communication, science, and Indigenous knowledge frameworks, this paper demonstrates that misinformation is not simply a communications problem but a governance challenge, one that can be mitigated through transparency, co-creation, and sustained dialogue data, to strengthen credibility in contentious project review
Associate Partner specializing in impact assessment and permitting, leading global multidisciplinary teams to deliver credible, science-based solutions for complex infrastructure projects
Coauthor 1: Ward