Warning Perceptions and Response for Ice Throw Risk in Norwegian Wind Farms

Risk management for wind farms builds on standardized risk criteria. A specific hazard in higher-latitude areas is that of ice and snow being thrown from wind turbines. The current state of knowledge about good practices for ice throw risk communication is still in an exploratory phase. With wind farms becoming increasingly commonplace, there is a need to strengthen thus far fragmented knowledge on warning communication and response in this hazard context. This is especially relevant for Norway, where wind farms often are freely accessible to the general public. Building on behavioral science scholarship, this study reports on findings from a quantitative survey. The survey measured familiarity with ice throw risks, evaluated the perceived value of different communication tools and formats for ice throw risk information, and included a scenario-based experiment to measure behavioral response to ice throw warnings. Findings reveal low intention to visit wind farms and limited familiarity with ice throw risk. Affective risk perceptions for ice throw hazards align with risk perceptions for more common winter weather hazards, with significant effects for personal interest in weather hazards, gender, and age. Understanding of and response to impact-based warnings for ice throw risk at different warning levels revealed similar effects. Importantly, subsequent exposure to warning upgrades or downgrades significantly affects warning response. A key challenge for visitors to wind parks pertains to the inability to observe visual cues that indicate ice throw risk levels. Suggestions for implementing ice throw warning communication, as well as future directions for research, are provided

Forensic engineering · Norwegian · Combustion and Detonation Processes · Engineering · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Risk and Safety Analysis · Wind and Air Flow Studies · Geology · Oceanography

• Balancing Safety and Mobility

  Open Access•Matthias Kokorsch•International Journal of Disaster…•2026

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